The term badlands currently refers to areas of unconsolidated sediment or poorly consolidated bedrock with little or no vegetation, which are useless for agriculture because of their intensely dissected landscapes. Badlands are geomorphological miniature laboratories that contribute to the landforms and geomorphological processes studies, mainly because badland landforms develop rapidly. Recent studies have demonstrated that weathering, mass wasting and water erosional processes on badland slopes exhibit complex spatial and temporal variability.
The growing interest in studying badland dynamics reflects the need to increase knowledge of processes and dynamics in badlands, because of their importance in generating extremes of water and sediment production. Moreover, there is little information on how badlands systems respond to climate change, which may alter the relationships between processes and modify the rates of weathering and erosion processes.
Discussion of the climatic, geologic and geographic setting, regolith dynamics, weathering processes, sediment yields, field measurements, badland gullies and piping will be shown. Special attention will be paid to the climate change and badland genesis. Possible responses of badland dynamics to altered hydroclimatic regimes will be also welcome.