The rates of erosion-accumulation processes were estimated and the contribution of various sediment sources was identified for the catchment of the actually drained Popovsky Pond, located in the northern outskirts of Kursk. The rates of sediment accumulation in the pond and dry valley bottoms over two time intervals were determined using 137 Cs of Chernobyl and global origin as a tracer. Fatty acids were for the first time used in Russia as tracers to assess the contribution of various sediment sources. It was established that 97–98% of sediment accumulated in the bottom of the pond came from the catchment in the period of 1964–1986, and the denudation rate in the catchment area was 1,7 mm/year. Sediment yield from the pond catchment was minimal after 1986 until it was drained in 2010. A sharp decrease in sediment yield results from higher air temperatures in the winter months after 1986, which led to a decrease in the frozen soil depth and an almost complete cessation of surface water runoff and erosion during spring snowmelt. Landuse changes in the catchment area with a significant reduction of arable lands and an increase of urban areas, especially since the late 1990s, was an additional, but less significant factor. It has been established that the sediments eroded from the arable lands were the main source of pond siltation. They account for 50% of the total sediments accumulated in the pond. At least 18% of bottom sediments are produced by gully erosion. Moreover, the actual contribution of gully erosion may be even higher. This is due to the fact that the use of fatty acids as tracers makes it impossible to reliably separate sediments which were formed due the gully erosion under the forest and between the forest and the apple orchard from the sediments which were formed due to soil erosion in the garden and in the forest.

Variations of 137Cs   content in suspended sediments during flood periods along the river valley bottom and in time since 1986 are revealed based on the analysis in low floodplain deposits and hydrological regime of the Upa River in the river reach between place of the Plava River confluence and the Upa river mouth. It is established that for the period 1986–2014 years there was a decrease in the proportion of sediment and sediment-associated 137Cs  of basin origin in the river sediment yield, especially noticeable after 2006. Reduction the 137Cs  content in floodplain sediments along the Upa river on the reach from the confluence with the river Plava, which are drained the most radioactively contaminated part of the river Upa basin, and up to the mouth is synchronically change with river water discharge as the catchment area increases. Contemporary 137Cs   inventory in sediments of the low floodplain of the Upa river exceed the initial levels of its contamination after the initial fallout of Chernobyl-derived 137Cs . The increase of inventory is associated with the accumulation of contaminated sediments at a rate of 1.5–2.7 cm/yr. during floods.

The 100-km long upper reach of the Volga River between the Selizharovo and Zubtsov towns is oriented opposite the Late Valdai ice sheet which covered the Volga River sources, i.e. the area of the Verkhnevolzhskiye Lakes, during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), about twenty thousand years ago. Due to the Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA), crustal subsidence occurred in the progalcial area and further from the ice sheet a compensational rise was formed towards which the Volga River valley was directed. The study is aimed at the investigation of the influence of GIA-induced changes in gradients during MIS 2 and the Holocene on the evolution of the Volga River valley. At the key site near the Bolshaya Kosha village (Selizharovo district, the Tver Oblast) it was found that prior the LGM the alluvial aggradation in the valley was most probably associated with the decrease of valley gradient because of the GIA-induced formation of a crustal proglacial flexure. However, the total depth of subsidence was not enough to completely stop the Volga River flow and promote the formation of a proglacial lake. During the LGM the highest (third) and widest river terrace was formed by both river and glacial melt waters. After the LGM the river incision resulted in the formation of a terrace staircase. The incision was caused by the increase of valley gradient due to the glacio-isostatic uplift of the proglacial area in the process of deglaciation. The incision was over in the Mid-Holocene (about 6 kyr BP). The total depth of incision was 15 m and the average incision rate was about 1 mm/year.

The potential of application of 232Th daughter radionuclides as tracer in lithodinamic and geomorphic investigations was explored. It was analyzed geochemical particularities of this radionuclide, its occurrence in rocks and sediments and ways of migration. A series of samples of sediments and river waters was collected within the Hackman canyon in the Khibiny Massif (the Kola Peninsula) and analyzed by a semiconductor gamma spectrometer to recognize activity of 232Th daughter radionuclides: 228Ac and 212Pb. In the 1930-s there was a lovchorrite mining within Hackman canyon, which tailings were enriched in 232Th. Their material is moved by different natural processes: mudflows, snow-water flows, erosion and complex slope processes. The spatial heterogeneity of radionuclide composition of loose sediments is detected, the analysis of which allowed to identify promising areas of geological-geomorphological studies and environmental risk assessment in the areas of production of radioactive thorium-containing rocks in the mountain conditions of Subarctic and protection of the natural environment.

Four independent techniques were applied for quantitative evaluation of soil redistribution rates within an arable slope and their spatial-temporal variability over the agricultural period. Such a complex approach allows mutual control and cross-validation of results, increasing their reliability. Sinuous pattern of the soil redistribution rate variation along the slope is associated with the specifics of a runoff formation and rill development in the slope hollow bottoms. Different temporal resolution of the techniques used has allowed making a rough estimation of contribution of individual events into total soil losses.

137 Cs concentrations and total volumes are analyzed in the sediments of a floodplain-terrace complex sampled at four test sites in the valley of a small river which drains the area with the different levels of Chernobyl-induced contamination. Specific features and governing factors of the spatial pattern of 137 Cs contamination are identified both within the sampling sites and along the river course. The amount of 137 Cs-contaminated sediments taken away beyond the initial fallout zone is evaluated.