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Sediments deposited by (paleo) flash floods can hold valuable information on processes of environmental change, land degradation or desertification. In order to assess the suitability of flash flood deposits as proxies for land degradation, we monitored a representative gully segment in North Ethiopia (Ashenge catchment), investigated a sequence of alluvial debris fans downstream of this segment and dated a neighbouring subaquatic debris fan using short-lived Pb-210 isotope counting. During one rainy season (July-September 2014), we measured daily rainfall, peak discharge, bedload transport, suspended sediment load and sediment deposition rates. The data show that sediment deposition in the debris fans is significantly dependent on micro-topography (net incision in micro-channels) (p<01) and position within the sequence (net incision farther away from the lake) (p<005). As sediment transfer to the lake significantly depends on the balance between available water and sediment (ratio rainfall depth/bedload transport) (p<005), we could reconstruct the hydro-sedimentary evolution of the gully over the past half century and validate it with aerial photographs and semi-structured interviews. The findings are consistent with the short-lived isotope count results, indicating increased sediment supply from the 1970s onwards, when little amounts of clay were deposited in the lake (<5%), and a subrecent clear water effect that resulted in increased deposition rates of clay in the lacustrine debris fan. Overall, our analysis indicates that debris fan sediments can be used to estimate past environmental degradation rates, if the contemporary water and sediment behaviour is well understood. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.