An efficient and robust soil erosion model at the basin scale

34/2021

An efficient and robust soil erosion model at the basin scale

Friday 4th June 2021

Bonaventura, L.; Gatti F.; Menafoglio A.; Rossi D.; Brambilla D.; Papini M.; Longoni L.

We present a numerical model of soil erosion at the basin scale that allows one to describe surface run-off without a priori identifying drainage zones, river beds and other water bodies. The model is based on robust and unconditionally stable numerical techniques and guarantees mass conservation and positivity of the surface and subsurface water layers. Furthermore, the method is equipped with a geostatistical preprocessor that can perform downscaling of data retrieved from digital databases at coarser resolutions and integrate them with field measurements. Numerical experiments on both idealized and realistic configurations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in reproducing transient high resolution features at a reduced computational cost and to reproduce correctly the main hydrographic features of the considered catchment. Furthermore, probabilistic forecasts can be carried out, also with limited computational effort, based on soil data automatically generated by the geostatistical preprocessor. Even though the model results are still far from full quantitative agreement with the available data, robust estimates of water levels, discharge and of the order of magnitude of the total sediment yield were achieved in two validation experiments on realistic benchmarks.

This report, or a modified version of it, has been also submitted to, or published on
Sarà presentato per la pubblicazione a: 'Advances in Engineering Software'