Case Study Guadalentin

In many erosion studies, the assumption is made that all observed erosion features are the direct and indirect results of human actions. In geosciences, however, erosion is viewed upon as a natural denudational process.

Consequently, in erosion research, spatial and temporal scales as well as research methods differ: plot-slope-small catchment scale, event based change, ‘human’ timescales and field experiments on the one hand, landscape regional scale, decadal change, timescales of landscape evolution (Quaternary) and landscape evolution models as tools on the other hand.  In this PhD-research we propose to bridge the gap between these contrasting approaches. By linking landscape evolution models to land use change scenarios, human induced land use changes and their effects on long-term erosion and landscape evolution can be quantified.

With the resulting new multi-scale modelling framework, innovative, integrated and sustainable erosion control and prevention techniques can be developed, implemented and evaluated. These will focus on the human-induced part of erosion and will assess their effects on natural processes.

» see Project Page for more information

LAPSUS Application

First, LAPSUS will be used in a comparison study between the event-based, short-term model LISEM and the landscape evolution model LAPSUS. Here, as in earlier work (e.g. in case study Israel), the duration of a run will be a rainfall event rather than one year of average rainfall, to be able to compare with LISEM output.

Second, LAPSUS will be used to model the long-term (Holocene) erosion and deposition history in the area.

The Guadalentin Basin (from De Vente and Solé).
The Guadalentin Basin (from De Vente and Solé).

Results - Publications

See Baartman et al. 2011, 2012a, 2012b, 2012c, 2013.

Future research

Ultimately, one of the objects of this PhD-project was to combine the two types of models (LISEM and LAPSUS) in a multi-scale modeling framework, assessing multiple time- and spatial scales and threshold processes.

Contact

Dr. Ir. Jantiene E.M. Baartman

jantiene.baartman@wur.nl

Prof. Dr. Ir. A (Tom) Veldkamp
Prof. Dr. Coen.J. Ritsema
Dr. Jeroen M. Schoorl