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Title: Emergence, persistence, and organization of rill networks on a soil-mantled experimental landscape

Author
item BENNETT, SEAN - State University Of New York (SUNY)
item GORDON, LEE - New York State Energy Research And Development Authority
item NERONI, VERA - Velocitel, Inc
item Wells, Robert - Rob

Submitted to: Natural Hazards
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/1/2015
Publication Date: 1/14/2015
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/63328
Citation: Bennett, S.J., Gordon, L.M., Neroni, V., Wells, R.R. 2015. Emergence, persistence, and organization of rill networks on a soil-mantled experimental landscape. Natural Hazards. DOI 10.1007/s11069-015-1599-8.

Interpretive Summary: This manuscript describes laboratory experiments of rill network development. Episodic erosion occurs as the downstream boundary is lowered. Terrain analysis techniques were implemented to derive drainage network patterns both before and during rainstorm events. The initial, pre-storm, drainage networks were strikingly similar to subsequent eroded rill networks. Rill network locations can be accurately delineated through analysis of high-resolution digital terrain.

Technical Abstract: Soil erosion remains a critical concern worldwide, and predicting the occurrence, location, and evolution of rills on hillslopes and agricultural landscapes remains a fundamental challenge in resource management. To address these questions, a relatively large soil-mantled landscape was subjected to continuous rainfall and episodes of baselevel lowering to force the development of a rill network system, and high-resolution digital technologies were used to quantify its evolution over time and space. These results show that waves of degradation and landscape incision occurred in response to baselevel lowering, where headcut development and its upstream migration produced a 4th-order rill network. Stream order indices derived for this incised rill network confirm that this pattern emerges relatively early in time, and it remains relatively unchanged despite continued application of rainfall and additional baselevel lowering. Using the same digital technologies, a surface drainage system was defined and mapped on the landscape prior to any soil erosion and rill development, and similar network indices also were derived. These results show that network characteristics and organization of this surface drainage system, as well as its location in space, were in very close agreement with the subsequent incised rill network following baselevel lowering. It is demonstrated here that rill networks are strongly conditioned by surface drainage patterns prior to any significant soil erosion, and that the location of rill networks can be accurately delineated through analysis of the high-resolution digital terrain.