Soil Erosion in Europe and overview of G2 model

Geoland-2 Training event,

School of Forestry and Natural Environment

Thessaloniki, 29 May 2012

Panos Panagos Panos.panagos@jrc.ec.europa.eu

Sealing Erosion

Organic matter decline

Compaction

Salinisation

Landslides

Contamination Decline in soil biodiversity

Threats to soil as identified in Thematic Strategy for protection of Soils:

Soil Erosion

Erosion is a natural process, which can however be significantly accelerated by human activities (removal of vegetative soil cover, increased field size, Overstocking)

Soil Erosion - Water Risk: estimated at 115 million ha, or one eighth of Europe’s total land area

Wind Erosion: 42 million ha are affected, of which 2% severely affected

The Mediterranean is particularly prone to erosion when heavy rain occurs after long dry periods.

Significant annual costs: € 0.7 – 14.0 billion according to Impact Assessment of the Thematic Strategy (only 13 countries included)

Since there is a difficulty to assess the affected area, erosion risk has been proposed as an indicator of actual erosion, which can be assessed on the basis of predictive models such as PESERA

PESERA predicts: o 3.4% of the area is at erosion risk of more than 10 tonnes (t) ha-1 yr-1

o 18% of the area (54 million ha) are at risk of losing soil above 1 t ha-1yr-1

o 25% of the area (75.5 million ha) is at risk to lose more than 0.5 t of soil ha-1 yr-1

http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/library/themes/erosion/

• Resource Efficiency Roadmap COM(2011 571, 20.9.2011), one of the building blocks of Europe 2020

• Milestone: By 2020, EU policies take into account

• their direct and indirect impact on land use in the

• EU and globally, and the rate of land take is on

• track with an aim to achieve no net land take by

• 2050; soil erosion is reduced and the soil organic

• matter increased, with remedial work on

• contaminated sites well underway.

• http://ec.europa.eu/environment/resource_efficiency/index_en.htm

Policy development

• By 2020, water abstraction stays, as a rule, below 20% of available renewable water resources.

• • Maintain and enhance ecosystems and their services by

• establishing green infrastructure and restoring at least 15% of

• degraded ecosystems by 2020.

• • Annual land take (i.e. the increase of artificial land) does not

• exceed 800 km² per year at the EU level by 2020.

• • The area of land in the EU that is subject to soil erosion of more than 10 tonnes per hectare per year should be reduced by at least 25% by 2020.

• • By 2020 soil organic matter levels do not decrease overall and increase for soils currently with less than 3.5% organic matter (Soil Organic Carbon 2%)

Targets

MODELS

INTEGRATED ASSESSMENTS

SPATIAL DATA

SOIL ACTION

Integrating large spatial datasets

MODELS

Mean rates of soil erosion by water in the EU-27 were estimated to be 2.76 t/ha/yr

EIONET: Data received from Member States

EIONET Data collection: a potential model for reporting the state of soil in Europe?

Soil Erosion (t/ha/year) AND Soil Organic Carbon(%) 0-30cm

Soil Erosion data: 7 countries provided complete datasets (3 countries incomplete); Vast Majority uses USLE or similar…

Erosion by water

(main drivers)

Rain

Runoff

Soil detachment

Rain

Soil movement

Terrain

Vegetation

Erosion agents

• Rain erosivity

• Soil erodibility

• Terrain shape

• Land use

Erosion Modelling

parameters

Christos G. Karydas, Panos Panagos & Ioannis Z. Gitas (2012): A classification of

water erosion models according to their geospatial characteristics, International

Journal of Digital Earth, DOI:10.1080/17538947.2012.671380

Erosion and scale

Christos G. Karydas, Panos Panagos & Ioannis Z. Gitas (2012): A classification of

water erosion models according to their geospatial characteristics, International

Journal of Digital Earth, DOI:10.1080/17538947.2012.671380

Processes

Features

Forms

Erosion models

Christos G. Karydas, Panos Panagos & Ioannis Z. Gitas

(2012): A classification of water erosion models according to

their geospatial characteristics, International Journal of Digital

Earth, DOI:10.1080/17538947.2012.671380

Erosion Models (82)

Why G2?

Geoland-2: is our research project (The Acronym)

A new modified approach based on existing knowledge (USLE)

A model which will work for the requirements of the Project (Regional Scale) but ……

with potentiality to be applied as a pan-European Service depending on data availability

Take into account seasonality : few research has been published on soil erosion seasonality

Compatibility with previous & current studies

Familiarity with existing user/scientific groups

Decision making tool : Easy to apply

G2 model features

Erosion type Sheet – interril

Erosion features Soil loss (actual)

Erosion processes Splash, runoff

Spatial scale Landscape

Temporal scale Month (long term, averaged)

Mathematical basis Empirical (inherited from USLE)

Type of assessment Quantitative (t/ha)

G2 formula

E=(R*V)*(S*T*I) E Actual soil loss (t/ha)

R Rainfall erosivity (modified from USLE by G2)

DYNAMIC FACTORS

V Vegetation retention (developed by G2)

S Soil erodibility (modified from USLE by JRC, 2000-5)

STATIC FACTORS T Topographic influence (USLE modifications, 1996)

I Interception of slope length (developed by G2)

Wischmeier and Smith 1978 E=(R*V)*(S*T*I)

G2 Objectives

Month Step standardised approach

Novel method for estimation of Vegetation retention

Useful for policy makers

Easy to identify the critical Months AND Critical Seasons

Easy to identify the critical Land uses

Easy to identify the HOT SPOTS

Based on homogeneous European Geo-Databases such as European Soil Database (ESDB), Organic Carbon Content (OCTOP), IMAGE 2006, BioPAR, ASTER DEM

Strymonas Study area

Extend: 14,500 Km2

Mean Elevation: 735m

Min Max: 0 – 2,940m

Average slope: 7.18

Land Use/Cover: 59% Forest, natural grassland, Shrublands AND 36% agriculture

Rainfall variability: Min 365mm (kerkini, GR), Max 835mm (Cherni vrah, BG)