Objective
A soil erosion model has been developed as a procedure for evaluating soil erosion risk and designing soil protection measures to combat erosion. Guide values for soil erodibility, vegetation and surface roughness have been prepared for a range of conditions. The information has been assembled into tables and included in the user guide. Procedures for dealing with surface roughness and stoniness have been developed and either included in the code in the model or incorporated in the user guide as a methodology for modifying input parameter values. Alternative procedures have been added for describing the transport capacity of interrill flow, chaning the way that soil particle detachment by flow is simulated to make the model more sensitive to soil cohesion, and including a subroutine for explicit modelling of the transport of sediment from interrill areas to rills. The code has been finalized in this modified form. A sensitivity analysis showed that the model is highly sensitive to changes in initial moisture content, saturation moisture content, slope length and plant basal area and moderately sensitive to slope steepness, Manning's n, soil cohesion and detachability, saturated hydraulic conductivity and the number of rills. Validation trials with versions 3.0 and 2.7 and data collected under controlled conditions in the laboratory have proved successful.
The proposal aims to complement the research on the European Soil Erosion Model being carried out under Contract EV4V-0112-C(AM) in the Environmental protection programme of DGXII. Specific objectives are to:
(1) Improve on the simulation procedures currently adopted in the process-based field-scale erosion model to take account of the detachment of soil particiles by flow, rill processes, soil
crusting, stony soils, frozen soils and the variable aggregate stability of clay soils.
(2) Extend the field-scale model to a catchment scale bY
developing appropriate routing procedures.
(3) Conduct further validation trials of the field-scale model, concentrating on its individual components. This will be
achieved by (a) rainfall simulation experiments carried out on erosion plots in the field in Italy, Spain and the UK; and (b) purpose-designed laboratory investigations for a range of initial and boundary conditions.
(4) Validate the catchment-scale model using data from
Denmark.
(5) Develop transfer functions, particularly for soil properties and plant morphology, to enable input parameter values to be estimated where measurements are not available.
(6) APPIY the model, using the transfer functions, to a range of European conditions, taking data from existing erosion plot and catchment studies.
(7) Link the model to existing hydrological models, e.g. SHE, taking account of feed-back mechanisms.
The Work Will be carried out bY a team of 24 scientists from 18 institutions in 8 European countries.
Topic(s)
Data not availableCall for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
MK45 4DT SILSOE,BEDFORD
United Kingdom