Efforts to tackle land degradation worldwide have spurred the adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices intended to reduce surface runoff and erosion. Despite their widespread implementation, missing or incomplete monitoring remains a pervasive problem preventing evaluation of how well SWC practices meet these aims. When using runoff and sediment loss as main parameters to evaluate SWC efficacy, the key metrics are the production of flow per unit rainfall (runoff ratio), and exported sediment (sediment concentration). We develop a method to assess changes in these metrics in the absence of a flow rating curve, using more complete and reliable measurements of stage (flow depth). We apply these methods to datasets with incomplete rating curve collected from five watersheds included in the Tana and Beles Integrated Water Resource Development Project (TBIWRDP) in the Abay (Blue Nile) basin, Ethiopia. Changes in runoff ratio and sediment concentration relative to the first year of treatment varied by season. In the long wet season (Kiremt) that generates most runoff and erosion, reductions in runoff ratio and in sediment concentration occurred in four watersheds. Reductions in the runoff ratio were directly proportional to the areal density of SWC treatments in the watersheds, suggesting that SWC treatments were effective in controlling runoff and erosion.We suggest that stage and sediment concentration information can be used to assess watershed responses to SWC treatments. Focusing on these measurements, may facilitate the design of reliable and affordable monitoring programs, and ultimately facilitate improved financing approaches based on reasonable estimates of likely SWC practice performance.

中文翻译：

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使用阶段作为排放的代名词来检测水土保持措施的短期影响—来自埃塞俄比亚塔纳盆地的个案研究

解决世界范围内土地退化的努力促使采取旨在减少地表径流和水土流失的水土保持措施。尽管实施了广泛的监控，但是缺少或不完整的监控仍然是一个普遍存在的问题，无法评估SWC实践如何实现这些目标。当使用径流和沉积物流失作为评估SWC有效性的主要参数时，关键指标是单位降雨量的流量（径流比）和出口的沉积物（沉积物浓度）。我们开发了一种方法，可以使用更完整，更可靠的阶段（流量深度）测量来在没有流量额定曲线的情况下评估这些指标的变化。我们将这些方法应用于从埃塞俄比亚阿巴伊（青尼罗河）盆地的塔纳和贝勒斯综合水资源开发项目（TBIWRDP）中包括的五个流域收集的具有不完整等级曲线的数据集。相对于处理的第一年，径流比和沉积物浓度的变化随季节而变化。在产生最多径流量和侵蚀量的漫长的湿季（Kiremt）中，四个流域的径流比和沉积物浓度降低。径流比的减少与流域SWC处理的面密度成正比，表明SWC处理在控制径流和侵蚀方面是有效的。我们建议阶段和沉积物浓度信息可用于评估流域对SWC处理的响应。专注于这些测量，