Sediment redistribution processes play an important role in the terrestrial ecosystem as they directly influence water quality, soil biogeochemical cycles and soil functions. Soil erosion and transfer result from the non-linear interactions of complex processes. Moreover these interactions are highly heterogeneous in space and time. It is therefore challenging to capture these processes in predictive models, either as research tools to test the relevance of different hypotheses, or as management tools to alleviate or prevent risk propagation in the landscape. However, a variety of models have been developed in different disciplines over the last decades addressing different spatial and temporal scales while using different techniques and focusing on different consequences of soil redistribution processes. All these models have their limitations due to deficiencies in detailed process understanding, scale dependency of modelled processes and due to the limited availability of relevant data for model development and testing.
The objective of this session is to bring together scientists from different disciplines such as hydrology, geomorphology, geology, agronomy and soil science to share knowledge and experiences in modelling soil erosion, sediment transport, deposition and fluvial export from the micro- to the macro-scale. This session is intended as a forum for presentations covering these issues from many viewpoints, including (but not exclusive) the following interrogations:
- How to deal with the uncertainties that are present in both, our knowledge and our input data?
- Should erosion equations be multi-scales or should we focus on dominant processes at different scales?
- Is there such a thing as Homogeneous Erosion Units to represent spatial heterogeneity?
- Should we calibrate our models only on the big events?
- Event based or continuous models?
- How to deal with connectivity and patchiness in coarse resolution models?
- Can we find appropriate indicators to validate distributed models?
- Should we agree on a common modelling approach to include erosion (and associated chemicals) in the context of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive?
- Should we use different models for diffuse erosion, gullies and mass movement?