Introduction to Soil Erosion and Landscape Evolution Modeling

Abstract

Landscapes evolve under the influence of a complex suite of natural processes, many of which may be either directly or indirectly influenced by land use. Soil erosion is a natural landscape process of critical concern to many land management agencies. As a geomorphic process, soil erosion can be generally defined as the detachment and transport of in-situ soil particles by three natural agents — water (in liquid or ice form), wind, and gravity (down slope movement). The consequences of soil erosion are both the removal and loss of soil particles from one location and their subsequent deposition in another location, either on the land surface or in an adjoining watercourse. A single soil particle may undergo multiple cycles of removal and deposition over time spans ranging from a single-event (e.g., hours) to geologic time (e.g., decades or centuries). Naturally occurring soil erosion processes (detachment, transport, deposition) can be accelerated by anthropogenic activities.