Suspended sediment source fingerprinting in a small tropical catchment and some management implications

The targeting of sediment management strategies is a key requirement in developing countries because of the limited resources available. Such targeting is, however, hampered by the lack of reliable information on catchment sediment sources. This paper reports the results of using a quantitative composite fingerprinting technique to estimate the relative importance of the primary potential sources within the upper Kaleya catchment (63 km(2)) in southern Zambia. During the study period (1997-9), the load-weighted mean relative contributions to the sediment load sampled at the catchment outlet were in the order: commercial cultivation (2.0%), bush grazing (17.1%), channel banks/gullies (17.2%) and communal cultivation (63.7%). Although influenced by the timing of sediment sample collection, these results are judged to provide a meaningful assessment of sediment sources in the Kaleya catchment. They indicate that improved environmental management strategies for the study area, must be comprehensives and need to reduce surface erosion and hillslope/channel connectivity in areas of bush grazing and both communal and commercial cultivation and to control gully development. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.