Sediment deposition in water reservoirs has major implications for storage capacity, reservoir lifetime, and water quality. Changes in rainfall patterns and land use will consequently alter the rate of erosion and therefore have a direct effect on sedimentation rates. This literature review employed a systematic mapping approach to collate and describe evidence of contemporary sedimentation trends for impounded reservoirs and natural lakes with emphasis on studies which analysed impacts on water storage capacity. Fourteen studies determined an overall increase in sedimentation rate, 13 identified a recent decline and another 5 reported mixed results. Interestingly, 83.3% of the articles that studied natural lakes found an increase in recent contemporary sedimentation, while 54.5% of the articles on impounded reservoirs indicated recent declines in sediment deposition. Land use change was the main causative factor responsible for sedimentation rate increase followed by the combined effects of land activities and climate change. Soil and sediment management strategies, implemented in and upstream of some impounded reservoirs, have proved to be effective in mitigating and remediating reservoir sedimentation. From the 147 papers preselected, only 33 contain sufficient sedimentation data to infer recent rate trends with only about 45% of these articles reporting quantities of storage capacity loss caused by sedimentation. Across these 33 studies, assessments of sedimentation and associated storage capacity loss are compromised by the limited spatiotemporal resolution of current measurement methods, reinforcing the requirement to develop new, more robust techniques to monitor sedimentation and storage capacity changes.

While significant studies have been conducted in Intermittently Closed and Open Lakes and Lagoons (ICOLLs), very few have employed Lagrangian drifters. With recent attention on the use of GPS-tracked Lagrangian drifters to study the hydrodynamics of estuaries, there is a need to assess the potential for calibrating models using Lagrangian drifter data. Here, we calibrated and validated a hydrodynamic model in Currimundi Lake, Australia using both Eulerian and Lagrangian velocity field measurements in an open entrance condition. The results showed that there was a higher level of correlation (R² = 0.94) between model output and observed velocity data for the Eulerian calibration compared to that of Lagrangian calibration (R² = 0.56). This lack of correlation between model and Lagrangian data is a result of apparent difficulties in the use of Lagrangian data in Eulerian (fixed-mesh) hydrodynamic models. Furthermore, Eulerian and Lagrangian devices systematically observe different spatio-temporal scales in the flow with larger variability in the Lagrangian data. Despite these, the results show that Lagrangian calibration resulted in optimum Manning coefficients (n = 0.023) equivalent to those observed through Eulerian calibration. Therefore, Lagrangian data has the potential to be used in hydrodynamic model calibration in such aquatic systems.

Ancient stories recalling catastrophic events were developed, sometimes encoded in myth, and passed down across several millennia in largely oral contexts. Volcanism is well suited to such stories and there are examples of extant stories recalling eruptions that occurred several millennia ago. This study focuses on a subset of these stories—those that recall the formation and subsequent (hazard-related) manifestations of maar volcanoes. Because these form as a result of the mixing of magma and groundwater, which produces explosive phreatomagmatic eruptions, they are among the most memorable catastrophic volcanic phenomena. Ancient stories recalling maar formation are known from Australia where cultural isolation for most of the past 65,000 years explains the extraordinary longevity and replication fidelity of such stories. Stories referring to the postformation developments of maars from Lake Albano in Italy are also described, together with less readily interpreted stories from elsewhere. Motif analysis suggests that preliterate peoples incorporated their observations of maar formation into stories as the shrieks of birds (escaping gas) and the approach of demons (eruptions), as well as narrative details such as the sky turning red and the ground surface twisting and cracking. Motifs referring to posteruption activity at maars include those that recall craters filling with water and ones that recall associated breaches of crater rims, lahars, and flooding downslope. The existence of maar stories of the kinds described and their demonstrable potential for adding detail and explanation to particular events several millennia ago should encourage geographers to treat such information sources with more respect than has been customary. Key Words: lahar, local knowledge, maar, maar lake, oral traditions, volcanism.

The cone penetration test has been successfully used to classify soil for ∼100 years. However, it has received only limited contemporary use in frozen geomaterials. The historical and contemporary use of the cone penetration test in various frozen geomaterials is considered here and contemporary data from recent work in polar snow are examined. It is probable that many material physical properties (e.g. density, strength and microstructure) can be obtained directly from cone penetration testing. It appears under-utilized as a contemporary scientific and engineering investigative tool in frozen geomaterials.