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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Morris, Minnesota » Soil Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #113904
Title: TILLAGE EROSION DUE TO MOLDBOARD PLOWING: A COMPUTER MODEL OF SIMULATION AT FIELD SCALE USING DIGITAL TERRAIN MODEL (DTM)

Author
item DE ALBA, SATUR - UNIVERSITY MADRID SPAIN
item Lindstrom, Michael

Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/9/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The scheme, algorithms and calculation procedures of a computer model for simulating tillage erosion and tillage translocation at a field scale are presented. The simulation process is built around deterministic models based on the relationships between intensity of tillage translocation and slope gradients. These models were developed from data of field experiments scarried out in Central Spain in 1995/96. Inputs of the simulation process include, in addition to the detailed digital terrain model (DTM) of a selected field, direction, depth, and tillage frequency. Differences in elevation between adjacent cells (1 m**2) obtained from the DTM data are used for calculating gradient slopes and soil movement over the cells. The simulation time step is a single tillage operation, after which a modified DTM is obtained. A final DTM and maps of variations in soil loss or gain over the landscape are produced. Presented are the soil redistribution effects resulting after simulating 50 consecutive tillage operations on a field (123 X 54 m) of complex topography and average and maximum slope gradients of 17% and 43% respectively. The effects of two different spatial patterns of tillage, contouring and up-downslope, are compared.