In:
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Copernicus GmbH, Vol. 23, No. 4 ( 2019-04-03), p. 1819-1832
Abstract:
Abstract. Erosive rainfall varies pronouncedly in time and space.
Severe events are often restricted to a few square kilometers. Radar rain
data with high spatiotemporal resolution enable this pattern of erosivity
to be portrayed with high detail. We used radar data with a spatial
resolution of 1 km2 over 452 503 km2 to derive
a new erosivity map for Germany and to analyze the seasonal distribution of
erosivity. The expected long-term regional pattern was extracted from the
scattered pattern of events by several steps of smoothing. This included
averaging erosivity from 2001 to 2017 and smoothing in time and space. The
pattern of the resulting map was predominantly shaped by orography. It
generally agrees well with the erosivity map currently used in Germany
(Sauerborn map), which is based on regressions using rain gauge data
(mainly from the 1960s to 1980s). In some regions the patterns of both maps
deviate because the regressions of the Sauerborn map were weak. Most
importantly, the new map shows that erosivity is about 66 % larger than
in the Sauerborn map. This increase in erosivity was confirmed by long-term
data from rain gauge stations that were used for the Sauerborn map and which
are still in operation. The change was thus not caused by using a different
methodology but by climate change since the 1970s. Furthermore, the seasonal
distribution of erosivity shows a slight shift towards the winter period
when soil cover by plants is usually poor. This shift in addition to the
increase in erosivity may have caused an increase in erosion for many crops.
For example, predicted soil erosion for winter wheat is now about 4 times
larger than in the 1970s. These highly resolved topical erosivity data will
thus have definite consequences for agricultural advisory services,
landscape planning and even political decisions.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1607-7938
DOI:
10.5194/hess-23-1819-2019
DOI:
10.5194/hess-23-1819-2019-supplement
Language:
English
Publisher:
Copernicus GmbH
Publication Date:
2019
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2100610-6
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