Modelling ephemeral gully erosion in small cultivated catchments

This paper describes a new erosion model to predict the location and volume of ephemeral gullies within the main runoff collector network of agricultural catchments. This model, using an expert-based approach, combines field experiment results and knowledge about erosion processes and agricultural practices. It takes into account slope gradient, parameters reducing runoff flow velocity or increasing soil resistance (land use, plant cover percentage, roughness and soil surface crusting stage), the hydrological structure of catchments and the runoff volume. The model is used to calculate the soil sensitivity to ephemeral gully erosion at any point in four small cultivated catchments. Results show that it is possible to predict gully erosion from simple information that can easily be recorded by farmers. However, our model tends to overestimate the erosion level in some cases. Furthermore, the quality of the results varies strongly according to the catchment and to the rainfall event used. To increase the quality of the results, it will be necessary to improve our knowledge database from experimental results and to use a calibration procedure. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.