Estimating sediment generation from hillslopes in England and Wales: development of a management planning tool.

Abstract

This research addressed the need for a national assessment of soil erosion risk for England and Wales, UK, by producing a national map of soil erosion taking into account of soils, slopes and present-day land use. It is illustrated how the data from measurement and monitoring studies can be used to model and then map at larger spatial scales the delivery of eroded sediment from land to water, and how this could be used as an effective management tool. The authors conclude that although the erosion model is based on the most comprehensive erosion data available for England and Wales, it is not sufficient for quantifying the risk of erosion from different soils at the soil series level and it is questionable how representative erosion data from the sampling period (1996-2002) are of long-term soil erosion rates.