Erosion Control Methods

Erosion controls are used in natural areas, agricultural settings or urban environments. In
urban areas erosion controls are often part of stormwater runoff management programs
required by local governments. The controls often involve the creation of a physical barrier,
such as vegetation or rock, to absorb some of the energy of the wind or water that is causing
the erosion. They also involve building and maintaining storm drains. On construction sites
they are often implemented in conjunction with sediment controls such as sediment basins
and silt fences.
Bank erosion is a natural process: without it, rivers would not meander and change course.
However, land management patterns that change the hydrograph and/or vegetation cover
can act to increase or decrease channel migration rates. In many places, whether or not the
banks are unstable due to human activities, people try to keep a river in a single place. This
can be done for environmental reclamation or to prevent a river from changing course into
land that is being used by people. One way that this is done is by placing riprap or gabions
along the bank. Some example of methods:
Cellular confinement systems (CCS), also known as geocells are widely used in construction
for erosion control, soil stabilization on flat ground and steep slopes, channel protection, and
structural reinforcement for load support and earth retention. Typical cellular confinement
systems are geosynthetics made with ultrasonically welded high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
strips or novel polymeric alloy (NPA) and expanded on site to form a honeycomb like
structure and filled with sand, soil, rock, gravel or concrete.
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area
across a sequence of growing seasons. This practice reduces the reliance of crops on one set
of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, along with the probability of developing resistant
pests and weeds.
Conversation tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various
types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling
methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoeing, and raking.
Examples of draft-animal-powered or mechanized work include ploughing (overturning with
moldboards or chiseling with chisel shanks), rototilling, rolling with cultipackers or other
rollers, harrowing, and cultivating with cultivator shanks (teeth).
Contour bunding or contour farming or Contour ploughing is the farming practice of
plowing and/or planting across a slope following its elevation contour lines. These contour
lines create a water break which reduces the formation of rills and gullies during times of
heavy precipitation, allowing more time for the water to settle into the soil. In contour
plowing, the ruts made by the plow run perpendicular rather than parallel to the slopes,
generally furrows that curve around the land and are level. This method is also known for
preventing tillage erosion.
Reforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands
(forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation but also after
clearcutting. Two important purposes of reforestation programs are for harvesting of wood
or for climate change mitigation purposes.
Hydroseeding is a planting process that uses a slurry of seed and mulch. It is often used as
an erosion control technique on construction sites, as an alternative to the traditional
process of broadcasting or sowing dry seed.
Level spreader is an erosion control device designed to reduce water pollution by mitigating
the impact of high velocity stormwater surface runoff. It is used both on construction sites
and for permanent applications such as drainage for roads and highways. The device
reduces the energy level in high-velocity flow by converting it into sheet flow, and disperses
the discharged water so that it may be infiltrated into soil.
Windbreak (shelterbelt) is a planting usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs
planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from
erosion.
Riprap is human-placed rock or other material used to protect shoreline structures against
scour and water, wave, or ice erosion.
Sand fence or sandbreak, similar to a snow fence, is a barrier used to force windblown,
drifting sand to accumulate in a desired place. Sand fences are employed to control erosion,
help sand dune stabilization, keep sand off roadways, and to recruit new material in desert
areas.
Fiber roll is a temporary erosion control and sediment control device used on construction
sites to protect water quality in nearby streams, rivers, lakes and seas from sediment erosion.
It is made of straw, coconut fiber or similar material formed into a tubular roll.
Contour trenching is an agricultural technique that can be easily applied in arid sub-Sahara
areas to allow for water, and soil conservation, and to increase agricultural production.
Between two trenches crops can benefit during the growing season (when there is less rain)
from the subsoil water reserve gathered during the rainy season.