ntifying Risk Areas for Soil Erosion in Euro mbers of the Task Group: R J A Jones (Lead), Christine Le Bas, Josef Koz visors: Olaf Düwel, Dominique King Identification of a risk area or zone requires: Defining spatial dimension (component) Defining temporal dimension (in future) Key aspects of the risk assessment are: Level of detail Measurement or prediction of current level of risk Prediction of future trend for that risk Important considerations remain: Subsidiarity should be optimized Maximum use should be made of existing inventory and monitoring systems activities and other sources of information Risk assessment, particularly the definition of areas at risk from the particular threat is the primary objective, not collection and harmonisation of soil data ESBN Plenary 2005
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Identifying Risk Areas for Soil Erosion in Europe Members of the Task Group: R J A Jones (Lead), Christine Le Bas, Josef Kozak Advisors: Olaf Düwel, Dominique.
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Identifying Risk Areas for Soil Erosion in Europe
Members of the Task Group: R J A Jones (Lead), Christine Le Bas, Josef KozakAdvisors: Olaf Düwel, Dominique King
Identification of a risk area or zone requires: Defining spatial dimension (component) Defining temporal dimension (in future)
Key aspects of the risk assessment are: Level of detail Measurement or prediction of current level of risk Prediction of future trend for that risk
Important considerations remain: Subsidiarity should be optimized Maximum use should be made of existing inventory and
monitoring systems activities and other sources of information Risk assessment, particularly the definition of areas at risk from the
particular threat is the primary objective, not collection and harmonisation of soil data
ESBN Plenary 2005
Identifying Risk Areas for Soil Erosion in Europe
Three options to define risk areas (zones):1. Empirical - on-site measurement2. Modelling – calibrated with real data3. Combination of 1 and 2 above
Spatial resolution required to define risk areas; Risk measurements already undertaken Modelling: (i) Models available (ii) Data requirements (iii) Calibration/validation
Useful links to existing European databases: CORINE, CIS, LUCAS, ICP Forest Focus European Soil Database (http://eusoils.jrc.it/) Agricultural Statistics data, e.g. from Eurostat (http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/pls/portal), MARS Agroclimatic Database (http://mars.jrc.it/) NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) as used by Eurostat (see also Appendix III: Auxiliary Data).
‘Soil erosion is the wearing away of the land surface by physical forces such as rainfall, flowing water, wind, ice, temperature change, gravity or other natural or anthropogenic agents that abrade, detach and remove soil or geological material from one point on the earth's surface to be deposited elsewhere’.‘In the context of environmental protection, most
concerns about erosion are related to acceleratederosion, where the natural rate has been
significantlyincreased mostly by human activity.’
‘Accelerated erosion by running water has been identified
as one of the most severe threats to soil in Europe.’
Types of Soil Erosion in Europe
Water erosion by rill and inter-rill,
gully,
snowmelt,
banks in rivers and lakes;
Translocation erosion by tillage, land-levelling,
harvesting of root crops, trampling
and burrowing animals;
Wind erosion by the action of strong dessicating wind;
Geological erosion: internal subterranean erosion by
groundwater, coastal erosion, and landslides.
Landslides including debris flows, other forms of geological
erosion, and bank erosion (along rivers and lake
shores) are reported by another SIWG Task group
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Country Rill, Interrill Gully Snowmelt Bank Tillage Animals Wind Landslides Groundwater Coastal
Austria XX X XX XX X N ? XX N N
Belgium XX X N X X N X X N X
Bulgaria XX XX XX X X X X X ? N
Cyprus XX XX X X XX ? ? X X X
Czech Rep. XXX X X X X ? ? X ? N
Denmark XXX X N X X N XX ? N X
Estonia XX N N ? ? X X N N ?
Finland X N XX X ? X N N N N
France XXX XX XX XX X X XX X X
Germany XX X X X X ? XX XX X N
Greece X XXX X XX X XX X X X X
Hungary XX XX X X XX X X X N N
Ireland X N N XX X XX N N N X
Italy XXX XX X X XX ? X XX X X
Latvia XX N N ? ? X ? N N X
Lithuania XX N N ? ? X ? N N ?
Luxembourg X N N X N N N ? ? N
Malta X XX N N N X N X X X
Netherlands X N N ? N ? X N N ?
Poland XX X X X ? ? XX XX N N
Portugal XX XXX N X X ? ? X ? ?
Romania XX XX X XX X X ? X ? N
Slovakia XX X ? X ? ? ? X ? N
Slovenia XX XX X X XX ? ? XX X N
Spain XX XXX X X X X X XX X X
Sweden X XX X XX N X X XXX X XX
United Kingdom XX X X XX X XX X X X X
XXXPredom
XXImportant
XMinor
NNot found
?Not known
Common criteria Data source/type of information Data Quality /Resolution
Tier 1 Tier 2
Soil typological unit (STU); Soil mapping unit (SMU); STU:SMU relation
National soil databases National level Regional level
Soil texture (at STU level) Texture class; sand, silt and clay content Texture class Particle size
Density, Hydraulic properties (at STU level)
Bulk density, packing density, water retention at field capacity and wilting point
Land cover Localisation of land cover type (e.g. CORINE land cover data)
250 m 100 m
Land use Land use, agricultural statistics (e.g. to distinguish between crop types)
NUTS3 NUTS4
Climate Precipitation: rainfall, snowfall, number of rain days, storm eventsPET, temperature
10 kmdaily average50 kmdaily average
1 km raster (modelled from national weather station network)daily – 30 years
Hydrological Catchment Information SystemDigital Elevation Model
10 km 1 km
Agro-ecological zone Based on soil, climate & landscape 50 km 1 km
ESBN Plenary 2005
DATA SETS
I. Each Member State should be requested to provide accurate information to update Table of ‘Types of Soil Erosion’.
II. Each Member State should delineate areas at risk of accelerated soil erosion by estimating soil loss, for each 1 km x 1 km unit falling wholly or partly within its national boundaries, as a result of:
Water erosion: (i) Rill and inter-rill erosion using a standard model, such as PESERA or RUSLE,
validated against erosion measurements and harmonised standard input data. Member States should also be encouraged to use, for comparison, any national approach that is scientifically robust, fully documented and based on the most detailed data available at national level.
(ii) Snowmelt erosion using climatic and topographic criteria (together with expert judgement) where this form of erosion is known to be prominent (see Table).
Upland (Peat) erosion, often resulting from a combination of water and wind erosion, using the occurrence of susceptible soil types (e.g. Histosols), topography, rainfall, wind exposure, with the aid of expert judgement;
ESBN Plenary 2005
Proposed Approach - 1
Tillage and land leveling, largely confined to southern Europe, identified from a combination of slope and agro-ecological zone;
Wind erosion: this is more difficult to assess but there are models such as WEELS and WELSONS to estimate soil loss. Delineation of risk areas could be made on the basis of occurrence of sandy and silty soils with loose structure, in combination with relatively low rainfall and incomplete land cover at critical times of the year and likely to be exposed to strong desiccating winds. Further consultation is needed to finalise the best approach to estimating losses from wind erosion, but expert judgement and observation will undoubtedly play an important part.
III. Defining risk areas by these means will inevitably result in the inclusion of land that has already been severely eroded and the obscuring local pockets of erosion because of the scale. However, these problems must be accepted in interests of harmonization at European level.