Bruno Cheviron

Evaluating the Impact of the Spatial Distribution of Land Management Practices on Water Erosion: Case Study of a Mediterranean Catchment

Abstract: The spatial distribution of land management practices (LMPs), such as the use of vegetated filters, may have a strong impact on their efficiency in trapping sediments and pollutants. Distributed water erosion models help managers, planners, and policymakers optimize the efficiency of these LMPs regarding their location relative to water and sediment pathways. In this work, the authors analyzed the impact of the spatial distribution of LMPs using an existing distributed model and sensitivity analysis procedures. The distributed model that was used is a distributed single-event physically based water erosion model developed to calculate erosion rates and sediment flow for small (less than 10 km2) agricultural catchments. To measure the impact of the spatial distribution of LMPs, the authors developed a stochastic model that generates LMP locations over the entire catchment. The stochastic model has three input parameters: the density of LMPs, their downslope/ upslope location probability, and the probability density function shape controller. Because of its ability to account for the cross effects between parameters, the variance-based Sobol method was used to calculate the sensitivity of the soil loss ratio of a typical Mediterranean agricultural catchment (Roujan, southern France) to the LMP location model parameters. Three measurement points (two subcatchment outlets and the main outlet) were used to examine the spatially distributed effects of the LMP locations. The simulation results indicated that 70% of the variation of the net erosion is explained by variations in LMP density for the main outlet catchment, making LMP density the most sensitive parameter. However, the total Sobol sensitivity indices indicate a strong interaction among the three parameters when the density values are low (few LMPs are applied). Thus, although the density of the LMPs is the most sensitive parameter, their location may influence their global trapping efficiency in (real) cases where few LMPs are applied.

Modeling of Floods—State of the Art and Research Challenges

This chapter presents a state of the art review and research challenges in modeling flood propagation and floodplain inundation. The challenges for flood inundation models are directly linked to the representation of flow processes, to the formulation of theoretical physical laws and to practical considerations. First, we review the various structures of coupled spatially distributed hydrological-hydraulic models and the corresponding spatial representation of flow processes. Second, we present the theoretical basis of 1-D and 2-D Saint-Venant “shallow water” equations with overbank flow, the approximation of Saint-Venant models such as the Diffusive Wave and the Kinematic Wave models and then discuss the domains and limits of applications of each type of models. Practical considerations linked to numerical solution schemes, boundary conditions and model parameterization, calibration, validation and uncertainty analysis were also considered. Finally, the discussion addresses the research challenges for guiding the modeler, according to the principle of parsimony, in seeking the simplest modeling strategy capable of (i) a realistic representation of the physical processes, (ii) matching the performances of more complex models and (iii) providing the right answers for the right reasons.

Impact of Global changes on soil vulnerability in the Mediterranean basin

Hydric erosion is one of the major causes of soil degradation. In semi-arid areas, where the soil cover is already shallow, the consequences are often irreversible on a historical time scale. Global warming and the land use changes expected during the 21st century are going to influence the soils deterioration and the erosion processes. In order to protect the soil resource under the current bioclimatic context and prevent the future consequences, it is essential to apprehend the erosion risk. Many studies developed soil erosion risk modeling methodologies at various scales from regional to Continental scale. The MESOEROS project is the first which aims to understand the soil loss risk on the whole Mediterranean basin for the current climate context and also for the predicting climate changes expected for the 21st century. Two models are used: MESALES (expert rules model) and PESERA (physical based model). Both provide the soil erosion risk into five classes. Model inputs; soils properties (crusting and erodibility), climate data, DEM and land use data; come from homogenized regional datasets that cover the whole study area. After being calibrated with watersheds data and the PESERA modeling on Europe, the two modeling results are analyzed. MESALES estimates Italia, Andalusia, Catalan and Aragon regions, western part of Greece and Balkan region as threatened areas while PESERA models the arable region of Castellan y Leon, Near East and the high atlas range in Morocco as subjected to an erosion risk. The two methods model parts of northern Morocco, center and European part of Turkey, Lebanon and northern Portugal at risk while southern France, Libyan coasts and southern Greece are never threatened. Analyses of the parameter influences on the models and the modeling validation allow understanding the integration of climate change on modeling results. MESALES and PESERA point out an evolution of the soil erosion risk between the 20th and the 21st centuries around the Mediterranean basin. The two models assess a global augmentation of the soil loss risk at the Mediterranean scale. They both show an increase - in intensity and surface - of the soil erosion risk on areas already sensitive during the 20th century.