Unpaved rural roads as source areas of sediment in a watershed of the Brazilian semi-arid region

Abstract Approximately 80% of the road network in Brazil is unpaved and shows evidences of a high erosion potential. In the semi-arid Caatinga Biome in the northeast of the country, a monitoring programme has been done for two years in order to analyze runoff and sediment production from unpaved rural roadways and from embankments. Sediment production ranged from 0.30 to 0.92 Mg/ha yr, higher than in undisturbed areas, but generally lower than that reported for unpaved roads in other regions. However, this is a semi-arid area with low rainfall and runoff and, hence, with a limited hydrological connectivity and sediment production. Sediment production on an embankment with no vegetation was around ten times higher than on an embankment with vegetation. On the road surface, annual sediment production (normalized for gradient) in a section with traffic was three times higher than for a road surface without traffic. In addition, events that occurred after roadway maintenance activities generated peaks of sediment concentration of over 5000 mg/L. These results suggest that sediment production from roads and embankments with bare surfaces is at least one order of magnitude higher than in undisturbed catchment areas. Maintenance activity and vehicle traffic contribute to an increase in sediment availability and impact on the sediment concentration, but less intensely on sediment loads, which depend on the runoff magnitude of the events occurring after roadway maintenance. It was also found that the natural vegetation of the semi-arid region potentially captures sediment on roadway embankments; thereby playing an important role in breaking connectivity between the sediment flow from unpaved roads and the natural drainage system of the catchment.