Book Description:
Check dams are a potentially effective instrument for planning of hydrological risks and soil conservation. Cross structure sequences have been used in numerous areas in the world to control flooding, recharge aquifers and stabilize mountain streams, gullies and high-gradient ephemeral channels. Nevertheless, it is little known of the effectiveness of check dams and their morphological effects. This book is an attempt to compile different based-field and laboratory research works in torrential head water areas. Bed stability variations will be investigated according to check dams types, bedrock control, bed slope, channel roughness, lateral sediment input, and highly variable sediment transport capacity. Though the main purpose of check dams is to stabilize the channel bed and diminish the boundary sheer stress reaching a minor longitudinal slope, they can reduce the volume of channel-stored material favouring local scour processes downstream and occasionally destabilize the hill slopes upstream.

Table of Contents:
Preface pp. i-xii

Chapter 1. Traditional uses of check dams: a brief global history, pp. 1-10
(William E. Doolittle)

Chapter 2. Criteria for optimizing check dam location and maintenance requirements, pp. 11-32
(Ali Morad Hassanli and Simon Beecham)

Chapter 3. Modern strategies for torrent control: slit and W-weir check dams, pp. 33-62
(Vito Ferro)

Chapter 4. Check dams in the torrent control practice in small mountainous catchments, pp. 63-88
(Stanimir Kostadinov and Nada Dragoviæ)

Chapter 5. Block ramps for torrent control and stream restoration, pp. 89-109
(Stefano Pagliara and Michele Palermo)

Chapter 6. Effectiveness of check dams in the reservoir sedimentation control under torrential conditions, pp. 111-133
(Jian Liu, Shuhei Minami and Shinji Egashira)

Chapter 7. Managing stream morphology with check dams, pp. 135-149
(Ellen E. Wohl, Anne Chin, Jeffrey Haltiner and Mathias Kondolf)

Chapter 8. Sediment transportation from bed-load to debris-flow and its control by check dams in torrential streams, pp. 151-184
(Rabindra Osti and Shinji Egashira)

Chapter 9. Filtering-retention check dams design in mountain rivers, pp. 185-210
(Vincenzo D’Agostino)

Chapter 10. The effectiveness of check dams in controlling upstream channel stability, pp. 211-237
(A. Remaître and J.P. Malet)

Chapter 11. Induced morphological changes affecting the stability of check dams systems, pp. 239-262
(X.Z. Xu, H.-W. Zhang, G.-Q. Wang, Y. Xu and O.-Y. Zhang)

Chapter 12. Local scouring at check dams in mountain rivers, pp. 263-282
(Francesco Comiti, Mario A. Lenzi and Luca Mao)

Chapter 13. Bed scour-sedimentation balance induced by check dams in semiarid catchments with different lithology, pp. 283-306
(Carmelo Conesa-García and Rafael García-Lorenzo)

Chapter 14. Upstream and downstream effects of check dams in braided rivers, Central Pyrenees, pp. 307-322
(J.M. García-Ruiz, Luis C. Alatorre, A. Gómez-Villar and S. Beguería)

Commentaries on the Book
List of Contributors
Index pp. 329-339