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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #204262
Title: Large-scale impacts of frozen soil on soil erosion: coupling the WEPP model to a macro-scale hydrologic model

Author
item MAO, D - PURDUE UNIVERSITY
item CHERKAUER, K - PURDUE UNIVERSITY
item Flanagan, Dennis

Submitted to: American Geophysical Union
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/17/2006
Publication Date: 12/11/2006
Citation: Mao, D., Cherkauer, K.A., Flanagan, D.C. 2006. Large-scale impacts of frozen soil on soil erosion: coupling the WEPP model to a macro-scale hydrologic model. 2006 American Geophysical Union meeting, December 11-15, 2006, San Francisco, CA. 2006 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Assessing environmental impacts of soil loss at large scales is necessary for regional management of natural resources and policy making. The process-based Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model has the ability to predict the spatial and temporal distribution of soil loss at a field scale. Recent development of a stand-alone version of the WEPP erosion code provides the basis for coupling with the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) macro-scale hydrology model to predict long-term hillslope erosion potentials for large regions. This study describes the coupling scheme and preliminary predictions of soil erosion in the Great Lakes region. Coupled model projections of annual average soil loss are very similar to those made using the full WEPP model for sampled hillslopes. Application of VIC-WEPP and GeoWEPP to small watersheds demonstrate that the coupled model makes comparable projections of soil loss potential. Differences in soil loss estimation may be due to climate data discrepancies and uncertainties in scaling. The preliminary coupling study highlights a number of issues with the coupling process that still need to be addressed including problems with temporal and spatial scaling. Further work will explore the application of the coupled model to basin scale hydrology and land-use change.