Sediment Transfer through the Fluvial System (Proceedings of a symposium held in Moscow, August 2004). IAHS Publ. 288, 2004, 75–83

1 Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RJ, UK

2 Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agro-Forestali e Ambientali, Università degli Studi
"Mediterranea" di Reggio Calabria, Italy

Abstract The fallout radionuclide caesium-137 (¹³⁷Cs) has been increasingly used in recent years to assess soil erosion and deposition at the catchment scale. However, the successful application of the ¹³⁷Cs approach depends heavily on the availability of reliable conversion models for converting measurements of ¹³⁷Cs redistribution to estimates of soil redistribution rates. This paper reports the results of a study aimed at validating the use of a theoretical conversion model to convert measurements of ¹³⁷Cs inventories on uncultivated soils to estimates of soil erosion rates. It is based on three small catchments located in Calabria, Southern Italy, for which measurements of sediment output are available. By comparing the estimates of net soil loss from the catchments derived from ¹³⁷Cs measurements with the measured sediment output, it is possible to assess the accuracy of the former estimates. The general correspondence between the measured sediment yields and the estimates of net soil loss based on ¹³⁷Cs measurements, confirms the validity of the theoretical model used for converting ¹³⁷Cs measurements into estimates of soil redistribution rates.