Rockwall retreat on badlands in Slovene Istria

Abstract

Steep bare rocky slopes that are badlands at the same time, are a morphogenetic particularity of the flysch part of the Istrian Peninsula. On them, microrelief forms are of a short life cycle, since erosion processes are fast. On the basis of measurements of sediment production in flysch rocks on four erosion plots in the Rokava watershed situated south of the village of Marezige, we show in this paper how fast these processes are. The annual sediment production in flysch rocks is on average around 80 kg/m2, which means that the slope retreat rate is about 35 mm/year. Furthermore, weekly measurements of sediment production in flysch rock for the period of 15 months (from February 2005 till April 2006) are shown, as well as weekly and seasonal averages. Linear statistical correlations between sediment production in flysch rocks and weather conditions are also presented.