Spatial and temporal variations in soil erosion and deposition due to land‐levelling in a semi‐arid area of Basilicata (Southern Italy)

This paper examines the changes from 1955 to 2002 in soil erosion and deposition due to changes in land-use patterns in the semi-arid territory of Craco, which is characterized by landsliding and badland erosion. The area underwent continuous degradation during the last century due not only to its lithological vulnerability but also to the anthropic pressure favoured by the introduction of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures, which has led to the reclamation of scrub lands and badlands for durum wheat cultivation. Our analysis integrates the Unit Stream Power Erosion Deposition (USPED) model with a geographic information system (GIS) to quantify erosion risk and predict deposition patterns. Soil data, land use inventory, digital elevation data and climatic atlases were used as resource data sets to generate USPED factor values. The obtained results correlate well with field measured erosion data by other researchers. In the investigated 47 years, stable areas decreased by about 280 ha (3·8% of the total surface area), largely attributable to the increase of the low and moderate erosion intensity without significant change in sedimentation. Results from this study have implications related to understanding the geomorphic response of sites that were abandoned following remodelling due to the application of the F measure of Regulation CEE 2078/92. The average annual erosion rates estimated for abandoned and remodelled sites are respectively 15·99 and 10·64 t ha−1, meaning that the total amount of erosion in 20 years could be estimated at around 100 t ha−1. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  Luca Montanarella,et al.  VALIDATION OF SOIL EROSION RISK ASSESSMENTS IN ITALY , 2003 .

[2]  John F. O'Callaghan,et al.  The extraction of drainage networks from digital elevation data , 1984, Comput. Vis. Graph. Image Process..

[3]  Luca Montanarella,et al.  Soil erosion risk assessment in Italy , 1999 .

[4]  R. Young,et al.  AGNPS: A nonpoint-source pollution model for evaluating agricultural watersheds , 1989 .

[5]  A. D. Roo,et al.  LISEM: A SINGLE‐EVENT, PHYSICALLY BASED HYDROLOGICAL AND SOIL EROSION MODEL FOR DRAINAGE BASINS. II: SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS, VALIDATION AND APPLICATION , 1996 .

[6]  Effects of soil tillage methods on soil losses, on soil characteristics and on crop production in a hilly area of southern Italy. , 1990 .

[7]  Gerard Govers,et al.  GIS-based simulation of erosion and deposition patterns in an agricultural landscape: a comparison of model results with soil map information , 1995 .

[8]  Hazel Faulkner,et al.  Erosion risk associated with rapid and extensive agricultural clearances on dispersive materials in southeast Spain , 2003 .

[9]  M. Piccarreta,et al.  Implications of decadal changes in precipitation and land use policy to soil erosion in Basilicata, Italy , 2006 .

[10]  David G. Tarboton,et al.  Assessing Terrain Stability in a GIS using SINMAP , 2001 .

[11]  José A. Martínez-Casasnovas,et al.  A spatial information technology approach for the mapping and quantification of gully erosion , 2003 .

[12]  A. Simoni,et al.  Slope instability in historic hilltop towns of Basilicata, southern Italy , 1997, Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology.

[13]  Gerard Govers,et al.  A GIS procedure for automatically calculating the USLE LS factor on topographically complex landscape units , 1996 .

[14]  Costas Kosmas,et al.  The effect of land use change on soils and vegetation over various lithological formations on Lesvos (Greece) , 2000 .

[15]  M. Piccarreta,et al.  Trend analysis of precipitation and drought in Basilicata from 1923 to 2000 within a southern Italy context , 2004 .

[16]  Helena Mitasova,et al.  Validation of a 3-D enhancement of the Universal Soil Loss Equation for prediction of soil erosion and sediment deposition , 2005 .

[17]  M. Piccarreta,et al.  The influence of physico-chemical material properties on erosion processes in the badlands of Basilicata, Southern Italy , 2006 .

[18]  W. G. Knisel,et al.  CREAMS: a field scale model for Chemicals, Runoff, and Erosion from Agricultural Management Systems [USA] , 1980 .

[19]  M. Clarke,et al.  Hindcasting extreme events: the occurrence and expression of damaging floods and landslides in Southern Italy , 2006 .

[20]  Chongfa Cai,et al.  Soil conservation planning at the small watershed level using RUSLE with GIS: a case study in the Three Gorge Area of China , 2004 .

[21]  Jürgen Schmidt.  Entwicklung und Anwendung eines physikalisch begründeten Simulationsmodells für die Erosion geneigter landwirtschaftlicher Nutzflächen , 1996 .

[22]  Michèle L. Clarke,et al.  The impact of the farming practice of remodelling hillslope topography on badland morphology and soil erosion processes , 2000 .

[23]  I. Moore,et al.  Length-slope factors for the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation: simplified method of estimation , 1992 .

[24]  M. Maugeri,et al.  Atmospheric circulation and precipitation in Italy for the last 50 years , 2002 .

[25]  Donald Gabriëls,et al.  A probabilistic approach for predicting rainfall soil erosion losses in semiarid areas , 2000 .

[26]  H. Rendell.  Soil Erosion and Land Degradation in Southern Italy , 1986 .

[27]  D. Gee,et al.  Making sustainability accountable : eco-efficiency, resource productivity and innovation : proceedings of a workshop on the occasion of the Fifth Anniversary of the European Environment Agency (EEA), 28-30 October 1998 in Copenhagen , 1999 .

[28]  Theodore A. Endreny,et al.  Maximizing spatial congruence of observed and DEM-delineated overland flow networks , 2003, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[29]  M. Clarke,et al.  Process–form relationships in Southern Italian badlands: erosion rates and implications for landform evolution , 2006 .

[30]  D. Tarboton.  A new method for the determination of flow directions and upslope areas in grid digital elevation models , 1997 .

[31]  L. H. Cammeraat,et al.  The effect of land use on runoff and soil erosion rates under Mediterranean conditions , 1997 .

[32]  W. H. Wischmeier,et al.  Predicting rainfall erosion losses : a guide to conservation planning , 1978 .

[33]  I. Moore,et al.  Physical basis of the length-slope factor in the universal soil loss equation , 1986 .

[34]  J. Poesen,et al.  The European Soil Erosion Model (EUROSEM): A dynamic approach for predicting sediment transport from fields and small catchments. , 1998 .

[35]  Jaroslav Hofierka,et al.  Modelling Topographic Potential for Erosion and Deposition Using GIS , 1996, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[36]  G. R. Foster,et al.  A Process-Based Soil Erosion Model for USDA-Water Erosion Prediction Project Technology , 1989 .

[37]  G. R. Foster,et al.  Predicting soil erosion by water : a guide to conservation planning with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) , 1997 .

[38]  Pierre Goovaerts,et al.  Using elevation to aid the geostatistical mapping of rainfall erosivity , 1999 .

[39]  C. P. Phillips.  The badlands of Italy: a vanishing landscape? , 1998 .

[40]  D A Robinson,et al.  Crust development in relation to vegetation and agricultural practice on erosion susceptible, dispersive clay soils from central and southern Italy , 2001 .