Abstract
This chapter reviews physically based and empirical soil loss and deposition models, and their applications to quantifying water erosion processes. This review includes the equations and flowcharts of the CAESAR-Lisflood soil evolution model, the physically based WEPP model, and the Morgan–Morgan–Finney empirically based model. The principles of these models illustrate that topography (in particular, contributing area and hillslope gradient) is crucial to determine overland flow and water erosion processes, across all models. Rainfall depth (especially rainfall intensity) is found to be key to simulate soil detachment. Soil erosivity is expressed by texture and hydraulic conductivity. The models also highlight the importance of the effect of land use (especially cultivation method) on soil erosivity and consequent erosion, and the effect of crop cover, canopy interception, and even root layer, on the water erosion process. Finally, this chapter underlines the importance of spatial and temporal components in simulating the dynamics of the processes involved, for accurate model predictions.
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Svoray, T. (2022). Modeling the Erosion Process. In: A Geoinformatics Approach to Water Erosion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91536-0_3
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