QLK5-1999-01323 PESERA: Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment

Contacts
Website: pesera.jrc.it
Summary Information



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Contract No:	QLK5-1999-01323
Source:	First Progress Report - April 2001 - Abstract

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First Progress Report - April 2001 - Abstract

Introduction

This document is the first annual report for the PESERA project, which details the specific contributions of each research group. The project commenced in April 2000 and is scheduled to run for 36 months. A physically based and spatially distributed model has been developed, and will be further calibrated and validated to quantify soil erosion in a nested strategy of focussing on environmentally sensitive areas relevant to a European scale. The model's robustness and flexibility will be demonstrated through its performance at different resolutions and across agro-ecological zones, and its relevance to policy makers through impact assessment and scenario analysis.

Objectives

The overall objectives of the project are threefold:

• to develop a physically based and spatially distributed model for quantifying soil erosion and assess its risk across Europe, attach a prediction error to the model output, and calibrate the model with existing information on soil erosion rate measurements,
• to validate the developed model across different agro-ecological zones at catchment, country and Pan-European level, and compare the model output to other methods for erosion risk assessment, and
• to ensure the relevance of the approach to end-users through multiple applications and demonstrations, impact assessment, scenario analysis, and development of a user-friendly interface.

The Project consortium consists of seven contractual partners, from seven different countries of the European Union

Activities

In order to achieve the objectives, three major phases and seven Work Packages (WP) covering the three phases have been established:

Phase 1: PESERA Model Development

WP1 Modelling strategy Sediment transport equation, Basis for including other erosion types

WP2 Spatial and temporal resolution linkages Selection of test areas, Climate generator, Aggregation techniques, Error Analysis

WP3 Calibration Selection of sites - Calibration with measured soil erosion rates, Database on erosion rates

Phase 2: PESERA Model Testing

WP3 Validation at high resolution Selection of catchments, Transfer functions and interpolation algorithms, Comparison with USLE, EUROSEM, Database development

WP4 Validation at low resolution Country case studies, Transfer functions and interpolation algorithms, Comparison with expert systems, CORINE, USLE, Database development

WP4&5 Soil cover module Spot vegetation image processing, Soil cover algorithm

WP5 Validation at European scale Transfer functions and interpolation algorithms, Comparison with CORINE, Database development

Phase 3: PESERA Model Application

WP4&5 Application at country and European scale Maps and reports oil current soil erosion rates

WP6 Scenario analysis Climate change, Land use change

WP7 User Interface and User Groups GUl application, Workshops with end-users, Workshops with expert-users

Phase 1 focuses on the development of a process-based and spatially distributed model to quantify soil erosion across Europe. The model is intended as a regional diagnostic tool, replacing comparable existing methods, such as the Universal Soil Loss Equation, which lack a sound physical basis and compatibility with higher resolution models. This will entail the development of a modelling strategy, sensitivity analysis, temporal and spatial aggregation/disaggregation techniques, error analysis and calibration with the aid of soil erosion rate measurements across Europe. A database will be compiled on existing soil erosion measurements from plots and small catchments across Europe.

Phase 2 deals with validation and comparison with other erosion risk assessment methods across Europe and at three different resolutions (catchment, country and Pan- European scale). Linking existing datasets to model parameters through transfer functions, interpolation algorithms and statistical methods will demonstrate the model's flexibility and robustness. The use of 10-daily vegetation cover from NDVI and SPOT VEGETATION/HRVIR will provide seasonal variations in soil erosion. Accurate spatial databases will be compiled from existing information on factors affecting erosion in Europe (climate, soil, topography, land cover) and upgraded using satellite imagery and computational techniques.

Phase 3 deals with application of the model, development of a user-friendly interface and establishment of user-groups at both national and European level. Quantification of the erosion problem enables evaluation of the possible effects of future changes in climate and land use, scenario analysis and impact assessment according to cost-effectiveness, technical feasibility, social acceptance and implementability. End-user groups, expert-user groups and research networks will actively participate in model testing and in evaluating the Project's progress and results.