Erosion Modelling In A Mediterranean Subcatchment Under Climate Change Scenarios Using Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment (PESERA)

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The Mediterranean region is particularly prone to erosion. This is because it is subject to long dry periods followed by heavy bursts of erosive rainfall, falling on steep slopes with fragile soils, resulting in considerable amounts of erosion. In parts of the Mediterranean region, erosion has reached a stage of irreversibility and in some places erosion has practically ceased because there is no more soil left. With a very slow rate of soil formation, any soil loss of more than 1 t ha −1 yr −1 can be considered as irreversible within a time span of 50-100 years. The objectives of this study were i) to estimate the temporal and spatial distribution of soil erosion under climate change scenarios in study area ii) to assess the hydrological runoff processes. In this study, climate data, land use, topographic and physiographic properties were assembled for Egribuk Subcatchment at Seyhan River Basin in Turkey and used in a process-based Geographical Information System (GIS) to determine the hydrological sediment potential and quantify reservoir sedimentation. The estimated amount of sediment transported downstream is potentially large based on hydrological runoff processes using the Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment (PESERA) model. The detailed model inputs included 128 variables derived mainly from, soil, climate, land use/cover, topography data sets. The outcomes of this research were spatial and temporal distribution of erosion amount in t ha −1 yr −1 or month −1 .

Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods for Soil Erosion Assessments: An Application in a Sloping Mediterranean Watershed, Cyprus

“…The PESERA model has been extensively applied in the European Union not only on the continental level but also at the local level (e.g. Panagos et al ., ; Cilek et al ., ; Karamesouti et al ., ), demonstrating to be a good tool for modelling annual average soil erosion rates. The PESERA model is available in two versions: a point‐based model implemented in Excel and a grid‐based model, which uses a Fortran code to process gridded GIS data.…”

“…The PESERA model has been extensively applied in the European Union not only on the continental level but also at the local level (e.g. Panagos et al, 2014;Cilek et al, 2015;Karamesouti et al, 2015), demonstrating to be a good tool for modelling annual average soil erosion rates.…”

Evaluation of Rainfall-Runoff Models for Mediterranean Subcatchments

“…To obtain long-term estimates of soil erosion these estimates must then be scaled up by integrating over time. This process of scaling up has two stages; first from momentary to event-integrated dependence, and secondly from events to long-term averages via the frequency distribution (Kirkby et al, 2010;Cilek et al 2015). Figure 2.…”

Evaluation of Rainfall-Runoff Models for Mediterranean Subcatchments

“…To obtain long-term estimates of soil erosion these estimates must then be scaled up by integrating over time. This process of scaling up has two stages; first from momentary to event-integrated dependence, and secondly from events to long-term averages via the frequency distribution (Kirkby et al, 2010;Cilek et al 2015).…”