Calibrating and validating the LISEM model for two data sets from the Netherlands and South Africa

11 tablesInternational audienc

Modelling soil erosion by water at the catchment scale

International audienc

Current Status on Flood Forecasting and Early Warning in Africa

An overview of the current state of flood forecasting and early warning in Africa is provided in order to identify future user needs and research. Information was collected by reviewing previously published research in the scientific literature and from institutional websites. This information was supplemented by data collected from a questionnaire sent to hydrological and meteorological institutions that were identified as potentially dealing with flood management issues in Africa. Results show that there are a significant number of institutional flood forecasting initiatives ongoing in Africa, but information regarding many of these initiatives is not easily accessible. Second, there is a clear need for improved flood forecasting and early warning in Africa. Third, the dissemination of existing flood forecasts and warnings to end-users and the public could be improved. It should be noted, however, that due to the difficulty in obtaining information regarding flood forecasting in Africa, the overview presented by the authors might be an underestimation of the current situation. Finally, the authors demonstrate the importance of developing a complementary flood forecasting and early warning system

LISEM: a single-event physically based hydrological and soil erosion model for drainage basins; I: theory, input and output

The Limburg Soil Erosion Model (LISEM) is a physically based model incorporated in a raster geographical information system. This incorporation facilitates easy application in larger catchments, improves the user-friendliness by avoiding conversion routines and allows the use of remotely sensed data. Processes incorporated in this model are rainfall, interception, surface storage in microdepressions, infiltration and vertical movement of water in the soil, overland flow, channel flow, detachment by rainfall and through-fall, detachment by overland flow and transport capacity of the flow. Special attention has been paid to the influence of tractor wheeling, small roads and surface sealing