Relationship of weather types on the seasonal and spatial variability of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield in the western Mediterranean basin

Rainfall is the key factor to understand soil erosion processes, mechanisms, and rates. Most research was conducted to determine rainfall characteristics and their relationship with soil erosion (erosivity) but there is little information about how atmospheric patterns control soil losses, and this is important to enable sustainable environmental planning and risk prevention. We investigated the temporal and spatial variability of the relationships of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield with atmospheric patterns (weather types, WTs) in the western Mediterranean basin. For this purpose, we analyzed a large database of rainfall events collected between 1985 and 2015 in 46 experimental plots and catchments with the aim to: (i) evaluate seasonal differences in the contribution of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield produced by the WTs; and (ii) to analyze the seasonal efficiency of the different WTs (relation frequency and magnitude) related to rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield. The results indicate two different temporal patterns: the first weather type exhibits (during the cold period: autumn and winter) westerly flows that produce the highest rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield values throughout the territory; the second weather type exhibits easterly flows that predominate during the warm period (spring and summer) and it is located on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. However, the cyclonic situations present high frequency throughout the whole year with a large influence extended around the western Mediterranean basin. Contrary, the anticyclonic situations, despite of its high frequency, do not contribute significantly to the total rainfall, runoff, and sediment (showing the lowest efficiency) because of atmospheric stability that currently characterize this atmospheric pattern. Our approach helps to better understand the relationship of WTs on the seasonal and spatial variability of rainfall, runoff and sediment yield with a regional scale based on the large dataset and number of soil erosion experimental stations

Relationship of Weather Types on the Seasonal and Spatial Variability of Rainfall, Runoff, and Sediment Yield in the Western Mediterranean Basin

Rainfall is the key factor to understand soil erosion processes, mechanisms, and rates. Most research was conducted to determine rainfall characteristics and their relationship with soil erosion (erosivity) but there is little information about how atmospheric patterns control soil losses, and this is important to enable sustainable environmental planning and risk prevention. We investigated the temporal and spatial variability of the relationships of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield with atmospheric patterns (weather types, WTs) in the western Mediterranean basin. For this purpose, we analyzed a large database of rainfall events collected between 1985 and 2015 in 46 experimental plots and catchments with the aim to: (i) evaluate seasonal differences in the contribution of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield produced by the WTs; and (ii) to analyze the seasonal efficiency of the different WTs (relation frequency and magnitude) related to rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield. The results indicate two different temporal patterns: the first weather type exhibits (during the cold period: autumn and winter) westerly flows that produce the highest rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield values throughout the territory; the second weather type exhibits easterly flows that predominate during the warm period (spring and summer) and it is located on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. However, the cyclonic situations present high frequency throughout the whole year with a large influence extended around the western Mediterranean basin. Contrary, the anticyclonic situations, despite of its high frequency, do not contribute significantly to the total rainfall, runoff, and sediment (showing the lowest efficiency) because of atmospheric stability that currently characterize this atmospheric pattern. Our approach helps to better understand the relationship of WTs on the seasonal and spatial variability of rainfall, runoff and sediment yield with a regional scale based on the large dataset and number of soil erosion experimental stations.Spanish Government (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MINECO) and FEDER Projects: CGL2014 52135-C3-3-R, ESP2017-89463-C3-3-R, CGL2014-59946-R, CGL2015-65569-R, CGL2015-64284-C2-2-R, CGL2015-64284-C2-1-R, CGL2016-78075-P, GL2008-02879/BTE, LEDDRA 243857, RECARE-FP7, CGL2017-83866-C3-1-R, and PCIN-2017-061/AEI. Dhais Peña-Angulo received a “Juan de la Cierva” postdoctoral contract (FJCI-2017-33652 Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MEC). Ana Lucia acknowledge the "Brigitte-Schlieben-Lange-Programm". The “Geoenvironmental Processes and Global Change” (E02_17R) was financed by the Aragón Government and the European Social Fund. José Andrés López-Tarazón acknowledges the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Department of the Economy and Knowledge of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia for supporting the Consolidated Research Group 2014 SGR 645 (RIUS- Fluvial Dynamics Research Group). Artemi Cerdà thank the funding of the OCDE TAD/CRP JA00088807. José Martínez-Fernandez acknowledges the project Unidad de Excelencia CLU-2018-04 co-funded by FEDER and Castilla y León Government. Ane Zabaleta is supported by the Hydro-Environmental Processes consolidated research group (IT1029-16, Basque Government). This paper has the benefit of the Lab and Field Data Pool created within the framework of the COST action CONNECTEUR (ES1306)

Irrigated land expansion since 1985 in Southern Tunisia

The causes of agricultural land expansion and its impacts on dryland ecosystems such as the oasis regions of Southern Tunisia, are fundamental problems challenging the sustainability of irrigated agriculture on water limited ecosystems. Consequently, a thorough understanding of this phenomenon is necessary to avoid future problems. With the objective of identifying irrigated land expansion dynamics and the primary drivers, two representative oasis regions in Southern Tunisia, Mareth and Fatnassa, were selected. Changes in irrigated lands in both regions between 1985 and 2011 were analyzed, and the land uses from which expansion occurred were identified using Landsat images from different years (1985, 1996 and 2011). The results indicate that the surface occupied by irrigation agriculture has doubled in Mareth, while in Fatnassa, it has increased fourfold. During that period, there was a simultaneous increase in total population, as consequence of human migration that came along with an increase in income. Thus, we could identify human migration and economic development as potential drivers of irrigated agriculture expansion, though further research is warranted to ascertain a quantification that would assist in obtaining the sustainability of these regions

A new adaptive method to filter terrestrial laser scanner point cloud using morphological filters and spectral information to conserve surface micro-topography

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), widely known as light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, is increasingly used to provide highly detailed digital terrain models (DTM) with millimetric precision and accuracy. In order to generate a DTM, TLS data has to be filtered from undesired spurious objects, such as vegetation, artificial structures, etc., Early filtering techniques, successfully applied to airborne laser scanning (ALS), fail when applied to TLS data, as they heavily smooth the terrain surface and do not retain their real morphology. In this article, we present a new methodology for filtering TLS data based on the geometric and radiometric properties of the scanned surfaces. This methodology was built on previous morphological filters that select the minimum point height within a sliding window as the real surface. However, contrary to those methods, which use a fixed window size, the new methodology operates under different spatial scales represented by different window sizes, and can be adapted to different types and sizes of plants. This methodology has been applied to two study areas of differing vegetation type and density. The accuracy of the final DTMs was improved by similar to 30% under dense canopy plants and over similar to 40% on the open spaces between plants, where other methodologies drastically underestimated the real surface heights. This resulted in more accurate representation of the soil surface and microtopography than up-to-date techniques, eventually having strong implications in hydrological and geomorphological studies. (C) 2016 International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Inc. (ISPRS). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Natural and anthropogenic controls on soil erosion in the Internal Betic Cordillera (southeast Spain)

Soil erosion in southeast Spain is a complex process due to strong interactions between biophysical and human components. Significant progress has been achieved in the understanding of soil hydrological behavior, despite the fact that most investigations were focused on the experimental plot scale. Although experimental plots allow exploring the effect of multiple biophysical and anthropogenic factors, they provide limited insights in the combined effect of all factors acting together at the landscape scale. In this study, area-specific sediment yields (SSY) have been estimated based on the volume of sediment trapped behind 36 check dams in the southeast of Spain. Low SSY-values were reported (mean = 1.40 t ha(-1) year(-1): median = 0.61 t ha(-1) year(-1)), SSY variability could be explained for 67% by catchment characteristics such as drainage area, soil characteristics, land cover, average catchment slope, and annual rainfall. The low SSY values are probably caused by the agricultural abandonment that occurred over the past decades and allowed the recovery of natural vegetation. Furthermore, our results suggest that the soils have eroded in the past to such an extent that nowadays not much sediment is detached by overland flow due to residual enrichment of clay and stones. Also, sediment is to a large extent trapped locally in the catchment, as indicated by the negative relationship between SSY and catchment area. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Vertical and lateral soil moisture patterns on a Mediterranean karst hillslope

The need for a better understanding of factors controlling the variability of soil water content (theta) in space and time to adequately predict the movement of water in the soil and in the interphase soil-atmosphere is widely recognised. In this paper, we analyse how soil properties, surface cover and topography influence soil moisture (theta) over karstic lithology in a sub-humid Mediterranean mountain environment. For this analysis we have used 17 months of theta measurements with a high temporal resolution from different positions on a hillslope at the main recharge area of the Campo de Dalias aquifer, in Sierra de Gador (Almeria, SE Spain). Soil properties and surface cover vary depending on the position at the hillslope, and this variability has an important effect on theta. The higher clay content towards the lower position of the hillslope explains the increase of. downslope at the subsurface horizon throughout the entire period studied. In the surface horizon (0-0.1 m), theta patterns coincide with those found at the subsurface horizon (0.1-0.35 m) during dry periods when the main control is also exerted by the higher percentage of clay that increases downslope and limits water depletion through evaporation. However, in wet periods, the wettest regime is found in the surface horizon at the upper position of the hillslope where plant cover, soil organic matter content, available water, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (K-unsat) and infiltration rates are higher than in the lower positions. The presence of rock outcrops upslope the theta sampling area, acts as runoff sources, and subsurface flow generation between surface and subsurface horizons also may increase the differences between the upper and the lower positions of the hillslope during wet periods. Both rock and soil cracks and fissures act disconnecting surface water fluxes and reducing run-on to the lower position of the hillslope and thus they affect theta pattern as well as groundwater recharge. Understanding how terrain attributes, ground cover and soil factors interact for controlling theta pattern on karst hillslope is crucial to understand water fluxes in the vadose zone and dominant percolation mechanisms which also contribute to estimate groundwater recharge rates. Therefore, understanding of soil moisture dynamics provides very valuable information for designing rational strategies for the use and management of water resources, which is especially urgent in regions where groundwater supports human consume or key economic activities