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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #267281
Title: Tools for quantifying rill and ephemeral gully development

Author
item NOUWAKPO, SAYJRO - Purdue University
item Huang, Chi Hua

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/6/2011
Publication Date: 10/16/2011
Citation: Nouwakpo, S.K., Huang, C. 2011. Tools for quantifying rill and ephemeral gully development [abstract]. ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting in conjunction with the Canadian Society of Soil Science, October 16-19, 2011, San Antonio, Texas. 2011. CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Quantifying rill and ephemeral gully erosion has been a challenge.Rills and ephemeral gullies develop at the field scale and it has been shown that both topographic and hydrologic attributes play significant roles in the channel initiation and development. Even at the field scale, changes in channel width and depth are in one or two orders smaller than the change in channel length. In this research we develop a simplified photogrammetry technique that can be readily deployed to quantify changes in channel morphology. In the laboratory, we constructed a soil box that has all the surface and subsurface hydrologic controls at a 9-m long hillslope segment. These tools allow us to quantify rill and ephemeral gully development at the field and to conduct process level research to quantify contributions from surface and subsurface hydrology in the channel development process.