Simulating a century of soil erosion for agricultural catchment management

Agricultural land management requires strategies to reduce impacts on soil and water resources while maintaining food production. Models that capture the effects of agricultural and conservation practices on soil erosion and sediment delivery can help to address this challenge. Historic records of climatic variability and agricultural change over the last century also offer valuable information for establishing extended baselines against which to evaluate management scenarios. Here, we present an approach that combines centennial‐scale reconstructions of climate and agricultural land cover with modelling across four lake catchments in the UK where radiometric dating provides a record of lake sedimentation. We compare simulations using MMF‐TWI, a catchment‐scale model developed for humid agricultural landscapes that incorporates representation of seasonal variability in vegetation cover, soil water balance, runoff and sediment contributing areas. MMF‐TWI produced mean annual sediment exports within 9–20% of sediment core‐based records without calibration and using guide parameter values to represent vegetation cover. Simulations of land management scenarios compare upland afforestation and lowland field‐scale conservation measures to reconstructed historic baselines. Oak woodland versus conifer afforestation showed similar reductions in mean annual surface runoff (8–16%) compared to current moorland vegetation but a larger reduction in sediment exports (26–46 versus 4–30%). Riparian woodland buffers reduced upland sediment yields by 15–41%, depending on understorey cover levels, but had only minor effect on surface runoff. Planting of winter cover crops in the lowland arable catchment halved historic sediment exports. Permanent grass margins applied to sets of arable fields across 15% or more of the catchment led to further significant reduction in exports. Our findings show the potential for reducing sediment delivery at the catchment scale with land management interventions. We also demonstrate how MMF‐TWI can support hydrologically‐informed decision making to better target conservation measures in humid agricultural environments. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evapotranspiration is resilient in the face of land cover and climate change in a humid temperate catchment

In temperate humid catchments, evapotranspiration returns more than half of the annual precipitation to the atmosphere, thereby determining the balance available to recharge groundwaters and support stream flow and lake levels. Changes in evapotranspiration rates and, therefore, catchment hydrology could be driven by changes in land use or climate. Here, we examine the catchment water balance over the past 50 years for a catchment in southwest Michigan covered by cropland, grassland, forest, and wetlands. Over the study period, about 27% of the catchment has been abandoned from row‐crop agriculture to perennial vegetation and about 20% of the catchment has reverted to deciduous forest, and the climate has warmed by 1.14 °C. Despite these changes in land use, the precipitation and stream discharge, and by inference catchment‐scale evapotranspiration, have been stable over the study period. The remarkably stable rates of evapotranspirative water loss from the catchment across a period of significant land cover change suggest that rainfed annual crops and perennial vegetation do not differ greatly in evapotranspiration rates, and this is supported by measurements of evapotranspiration from various vegetation types based on soil water monitoring in the same catchment. Compensating changes in the other meteorological drivers of evaporative water demand besides air temperature—wind speed, atmospheric humidity, and net radiation—are also possible but cannot be evaluated due to insufficient local data across the 50‐year period. Regardless of the explanation, this study shows that the water balance of this landscape has been resilient in the face of both land cover and climate change over the past 50 years.     

Modelling the water balance of a mesoscale catchment basin using remotely sensed land cover data

Hydrological modelling of mesoscale catchments is often adversely affected by a lack of adequate information about specific site conditions. In particular, digital land cover data are available from data sets which were acquired on a European or a national scale. These data sets do not only exhibit a restricted spatial resolution but also a differentiation of crops and impervious areas which is not appropriate to the needs of mesoscale hydrological models. In this paper, the impact of remote sensing data on the reliability of a water balance model is investigated and compared to model results determined on the basis of CORINE (Coordination of Information on the Environment) Land Cover as a reference. The aim is to quantify the improved model performance achieved by an enhanced land cover representation and corresponding model modifications. Making use of medium resolution satellite imagery from SPOT, LANDSAT ETM+ and ASTER, detailed information on land cover, especially agricultural crops and impervious surfaces, was extracted over a 5-year period (2000–2004). Crop-specific evapotranspiration coefficients were derived by using remote sensing data to replace grass reference evapotranspiration necessitated by the use of CORINE land cover for rural areas. For regions classified as settlement or industrial areas, degrees of imperviousness were derived. The data were incorporated into the hydrological model GROWA (large-scale water balance model), which uses an empirical approach combining distributed meteorological data with distributed site parameters to calculate the annual runoff components. Using satellite imagery in combination with runoff data from gauging stations for the years 2000–2004, the actual evapotranspiration calculation in GROWA was methodologically extended by including empirical crop coefficients for actual evapotranspiration calculations. While GROWA originally treated agricultural areas as homogeneous, now a consideration and differentiation of the main crops is possible. The accuracy was determined by runoff measurements from gauging stations. Differences in water balances resulting from the use of remote sensing data as opposed to CORINE were analysed in this study using a representative subcatchment. Resulting Nash–Sutcliff model efficiencies improved from 0.372 to 0.775 and indicate that the enhanced model can produce thematically more accurate and spatially more detailed local water balances. However, the proposed model enhancements by satellite imagery have not exhausted the full potential of water balance modelling, for which a higher temporal resolution is required.     

Simulated impacts of climate change and land‐clearing on runoff from a small Sahelian catchment

In the Sahel, there are few long‐term data series available to estimate the climatic and anthropogenic impacts on runoff in small catchments. Since 1950, land clearing has enhanced runoff. The question is whether and by how much this anthropogenic effect offsets the current drought. To answer this question, a physically based distributed hydrological model was used to simulate runoff in a small Sahelian catchment in Niger, from the 1950–1998 rain‐series. The simulation was carried out for three soil surface states of the catchment (1950, 1975 and 1992). The catchment is characterized by an increase in cultivated land, with associated fallow, from 6% in 1950 to 56% in 1992, together with an increase in the extent of eroded land (from 7 to 16%), at the expense of the savanna. Effects of climate and land use are first analysed separately: irrespective of the land cover state, the simulated mean annual runoff decreases by about 40% from the wet period (1950–1969) to the dry period (1970–1998); calculated on the 1950–1998 rainfall‐series, the changes that occurred in land cover between 1950 and 1992 multiplies the mean annual runoff by a factor close to three. The analysis of a joint climatic and anthropogenic change shows that the transition from a wet period under a ‘natural’ land cover (1950) to a dry period under a cultivated land cover (1992) results in an increase in runoff of the order of 30 to 70%. At the scale of a small Sahelian catchment, the anthropogenic impact on runoff is probably more important than that of drought. This figure for relative increase in runoff contributions to ponds, preferential sites of seepage to groundwater, is less than that currently estimated for aquifer recharge, which has been causing a significant continuous water table rise over the same period. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessment of overland flow variation and blue water production in a farmed semi-arid water harvesting catchment

Upgrading agriculture in semi-arid areas and ensuring its sustainability require an optimal management of rainfall partition between blue and green waters in the farmed water harvesting catchment. The main objective of this study is to analyze the influence of heterogeneous land use on the spatial and temporal variation of rainfall partitioning and blue water production within a typical farmed catchment located in north-eastern Tunisia. The catchment has an area of 2.6 km² and comprises at its outlet a dam, which retains the runoff water in a reservoir. Overland flow and soil water balance components were monitored during two cropping seasons (2000/2001 and 2001/2002) on a network of eleven plots of 2 m² each with different land use and soil characteristics. The hydrological balances of both the catchment and reservoir have been monitored since 1994.Observed data showed a very large temporal and spatial variability of overland flow within the catchment reflecting the great importance of total rainfall as well as land use. During the 2001/2002 season the results showed a large variation of the number of observed runoff events, from 27 to 39, and of the annual overland flow depths, from 8 mm (under vineyard on calcaric cambisols) up to 43 mm (under shrubs-pasture on haplic regosols), between the plots. The annual runoff amounts were moderate; they always corresponded to less than 15% of the annual rainfall amount whatever the observation scale. It was also observed that changes in land use in years with similar rainfall could lead to significant differences in blue water flow. An attempt for predicting the overland flow by the general linear regression approach showed an r² of 31%, the predictors used are the class of soil infiltration capacity, the initial moisture saturation ratio of the soil surface layer and the total rainfall amounts.These experimental results indicate that the variation in land use in a semi-arid catchment is a main factor of variation in soil surface conditions and explain the major role played by the former on hydrological behavior of the upstream area and on rainfall partition between overland flow and infiltration. Therefore, to predict the water harvesting capacities in terms of blue water production of a farmed catchment in semi-arid areas it seems essential to consider precisely its land use and its temporal evolution related to management practices.     

Effect of forest on annual water yield in the mountains of an arid inland river basin: a case study in the Pailugou catchment on northwestern China's Qilian Mountains

The effect of forests on annual water yield is an unresolved central issue in forest hydrology despite years of study. There has been a particular shortage of research in the mountains of arid inland river basins. In the present study, we examined the effects of forests on hydrology using data on precipitation, evaporation, canopy interception, transpiration, and runoff from 1994 to 2008 for the Pailugou catchment of northwestern China's Qilian Mountains. We modelled the water balance to assess the contribution of different vegetation types to annual water yield. In our study area, Picea crassifolia forest covered 38·5% of the catchment area, but contributed little to annual water yield. For an annual average precipitation of 407·1 mm (from 2003 to 2008) at an elevation of 2700 m, the runoff depth from the forest was 11·6 mm, accounting for only 3·5% of total annual water yield of the catchment. For an annual average precipitation of 374·1 mm (from 1994 to 2002), the runoff depth from the forest was ? 14·3 mm (i.e. 5·9% of total annual water yield of the catchment was consumed to sustain tree growth). This has significant implications, because forests are increasingly being planted in the Qilian Mountains, and this may decrease the downstream water supply. Thus, the relationship between the forest and water yield must be better understood to permit the establishment of an appropriate regional level of forest cover. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The variation and controls of mean transit times in Australian headwater catchments

Determining mean transit times in headwater catchments is critical for understanding catchment functioning and understanding their responses to changes in landuse or climate. Determining whether mean transit times (MTTs) correlate with drainage density, slope angle, area, or land cover permits a better understanding of the controls on water flow through catchments and allows first-order predictions of MTTs in other catchments to be made. This study assesses whether there are identifiable controls on MTTs determined using ³H in headwater catchments of southeast Australia. Despite MTTs at baseflow varying from a few years to >100 years, it was difficult to predict MTTs using single or groups of readily-measured catchment attributes. The lack of readily-identifiable correlations hampers the prediction of MTTs in adjacent catchments even where these have similar geology, land use, and topography. The long MTTs of the Australian headwater catchments are probably in part due to the catchments having high storage volumes in deeply-weathered regolith, combined with low recharge rates due to high evapotranspiration. However, the difficulty in estimating storage volumes at the catchment scale hampers the use of this parameter to estimate MTTs. The runoff coefficient (the fraction of rainfall exported via the stream) is probably also controlled by evapotranspiration and recharge rates. Correlations between the runoff coefficient and MTTs in individual catchments allow predictions of MTTs in nearby catchments to be made. MTTs are shorter in high rainfall periods as the catchments wet up and shallow water stores are mobilized. Despite the contribution of younger water, the major ion geochemistry in individual catchments commonly does not correlate with MTTs, probably reflecting heterogeneous reactions and varying degrees of evapotranspiration. Documenting MTTs in catchments with high storage volumes and/or low recharge rates elsewhere is important for understanding MTTs in diverse environments.     

Assessing the long-term impact of climatic variability and human activities on the water resources of a meso-scale Mediterranean catchment

Abstract

This article addresses the critical need for a better quantitative understanding of how water resources from the Hérault River catchment in France have been influenced by climate variability and the increasing pressure of human activity over the last 50 years. A method is proposed for assessing the relative impacts of climate and growing water demand on the decrease in discharge observed at various gauging stations in the periods 1961–1980 and 1981–2010. An annual water balance at the basin scale was calculated first, taking into account precipitation, actual evapotranspiration, water withdrawals and water discharge. Next, the evolution of the seasonal variability in hydroclimatic conditions and water withdrawals was studied. The catchment was then divided into zones according to the main geographical characteristics to investigate the heterogeneity of the climatic and human dynamics. This delimitation took into account the distribution of climate, topography, lithology, land cover and water uses, as well as the availability of discharge series. At the area scale, annual water balances were calculated to understand the internal changes that occurred in the catchment between both past periods. The decrease in runoff can be explained by the decrease in winter precipitation in the upstream areas and by the increase during summer in both water withdrawals and evapotranspiration in the downstream areas, mainly due to the increase in temperature. Thus, water stress increased in summer by 35%. This work is the first step of a larger research project to assess possible future changes in the capacity to satisfy water demand in the Hérault River catchment, using a model that combines hydrological processes and water demand.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz     

Attribution of changes in the water balance of a tropical catchment to land use change using the SWAT model

Changes in the water balance of the Samin catchment (277.9 km²) on Java, Indonesia, can be attributed to land use change using the Soil Water Assessment Tool model. A baseline‐altered method was used in which the simulation period 1990–2013 was divided into 4 equal periods to represent baseline conditions (1990–1995) and altered land use conditions (1996–2001, 2002–2007, and 2008–2013). Land use maps for 1994, 2000, 2006, and 2013 were acquired from satellite images. A Soil Water Assessment Tool model was calibrated for the baseline period and applied to the altered periods with and without land use change. Incorporating land use change resulted in a Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.7 compared to 0.6 when land use change is ignored. In addition, the model performance for simulations without land use change gradually decreased with time. Land use change appeared to be the important driver for changes in the water balance. The main land use changes during 1994–2013 are a decrease in forest area from 48.7% to 16.9%, an increase in agriculture area from 39.2% to 45.4%, and an increase in settlement area from 9.8% to 34.3%. For the catchment, this resulted in an increase of the runoff coefficient from 35.7% to 44.6% and a decrease in the ratio of evapotranspiration to rainfall from 60% to 54.8%. More pronounced changes can be observed for the ratio of surface runoff to stream flow (increase from 26.6% to 37.5%) and the ratio of base flow to stream flow (decrease from 40% to 31.1%), whereas changes in the ratio of lateral flow to stream flow were minor (decrease from 33.4% to 31.4%). At sub‐catchment level, the effect of land use changes on the water balance varied in different sub‐catchments depending on the scale of changes in forest and settlement area.     

Future land cover and climate may drive decreases in snow wind-scour and transpiration,increasing streamflow at a Colorado,USA headwater catchment

Understanding how land cover change will impact water resources in snow-dominated regions is of critical importance as these locations produce disproportionate runoff relative to their land area. We coupled a land cover evolution model with a spatially explicit, physics-based, watershed process model to simulate land cover change and its impact on the water balance in a 5.0 km² headwater catchment spanning the alpine–subalpine transition on the Colorado Front Range. We simulated two potential futures both with greater air temperature (+4°C/century) and more precipitation (+15%/century, MP) or less precipitation (−15%/century, LP) from 2000 to 2100. Forest cover in the catchment increased from 72% in 2000 to 84% and 83% in 2050 and to 95% and 92% in 2100 for MP and LP, respectively. Surprisingly, increases in forest cover led to mean increases in annual streamflow production of 12 mm (6%) and 2 mm (1%) for MP and LP in 2050 with an annual control streamflow of 208 mm. In 2100, mean streamflow production increased by 91 mm (44%) and 61 mm (29%) for MP and LP. This result counters previous work as runoff production increased with forested area due to decreases in snow wind-scour and increases in drifting leeward of vegetation, highlighting the need to better understand the impacts of forest expansion on the spatial pattern of snow scour, deposition and catchment effective precipitation. Identifying the hydrologic response of mountainous areas to climate warming induced land cover change is critically important due to the potential water resources impacts on downstream regions.     

Increasing annual runoff—broadleaf or coniferous forests?

According to widely held belief, annual evapotranspiration (ET) for broadleaf forests is less than that for coniferous forests, resulting in higher annual runoff for broadleaf forests. We processed 82 catchment runoff and 126 interception loss data from temperate regions and found that although the belief is valid under conditions of broadleaf deciduous forests and high winter precipitation (e.g. the United States), it is invalid under conditions of broadleaf evergreen forests (e.g. New Zealand) or low winter precipitation (e.g. Japan). Thus, forest management policies based on this belief should be reconsidered on the basis of our results for regions with broadleaf evergreen forests or low winter precipitation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the significance of crop‐type information for the simulation of catchment hydrology

Spatially distributed hydrological models require information on the land cover pattern, as it directly influences the generation of run‐off. However, it is not clear which detail of land cover information is suitable for simulating the catchment hydrology. A better understanding of the relationship between the land cover detail and the hydrological processes is therefore required as it would enhance a successful application of the hydrological model. This study investigates the relevance of accurate information about the crop types in the catchment for the simulation of run‐off, baseflow and evapotranspiration. Results reveal that adding knowledge about the crop type in the model simulation is redundant when area‐averaged water flux predictions are intended. On the contrary, when a spatial distribution of water flux predictions is desired, it is meaningful to increase the land cover detail because an increased heterogeneity in the land cover map induces an increased heterogeneity in the hydrological response and locally reduces the uncertainty in the model prediction up to 50%. To assess the land cover uncertainty and to locate the regions for which the reduction in prediction uncertainty is the highest, the thematic uncertainty map (constructed through fuzzy logic) is shown to be a useful tool. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vertical zonality of the water cycle and the impact of land-use change on runoff in the Qingshui River Basin of Wutai Mountain,China

ABSTRACT

Hydrological processes in hilly watersheds are significantly affected by variations in elevation; however, the hydrological functions of different vertical vegetation belts, have rarely been reported. The distributed hydrological model WEP-L (Water and Energy transfer Process in Large river basins) was applied to analyse vertical variations in the hydrological processes of Qingshui River basin (QRB), Wutai Mountain (altitude: 3058 m a.s.l.), China. The results show that the highest ratio of evapotranspiration to precipitation occurs at 1800 m a.s.l. Below 1800 m, evapotranspiration is mainly controlled by precipitation, and in regions above1800 m it is controlled by energy. The runoff coefficients for different vertical vegetation belts may be ranked as follows: farmland > grassland > subalpine meadow > evergreen coniferous shrub forest > deciduous broad-leaved forest. Grassland is the largest runoff production area, contributing approximately 39.10% to the annual water yield of the QRB. The runoff from forested land decreased to a greater extent than the grassland runoff. Increasing forest cover may increase evapotranspiration and reduce runoff. These results are important, not only for further understanding of the hydrological mechanisms in this basin, but also for implementing the sustainable management of water resources and ecosystems in other mountainous regions.     

Effects of land‐cover changes on the hydrological response of interior Columbia River basin forested catchments

The topographically explicit distributed hydrology–soil–vegetation model (DHSVM) is used to simulate hydrological effects of changes in land cover for four catchments, ranging from 27 to 1033 km², within the Columbia River basin. Surface fluxes (stream flow and evapotranspiration) and state variables (soil moisture and snow water equivalent) corresponding to historical (1900) and current (1990) vegetation are compared. In addition a sensitivity analysis, where the catchments are covered entirely by conifers at different maturity stages, was conducted. In general, lower leaf‐area index (LAI) resulted in higher snow water equivalent, more stream flow and less evapotranspiration. Comparisons with the macroscale variable infiltration capacity (VIC) model, which parameterizes, rather than explicitly represents, topographic effects, show that runoff predicted by DHSVM is more sensitive to land‐cover changes than is runoff predicted by VIC. This is explained by model differences in soil parameters and evapotranspiration calculations, and by the more explicit representation of saturation excess in DHSVM and its higher sensitivity to LAI changes in the calculation of evapotranspiration. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the impact of land use change on hydrology by ensemble modelling (LUCHEM) IV: Model sensitivity to data aggregation and spatial (re-)distribution

This paper analyses the effect of spatial resolution and distribution of model input data on the results of regional-scale land use scenarios using three different hydrological catchment models. A 25 m resolution data set of a mesoscale catchment and three land use scenarios are used. Data are systematically aggregated to resolutions up to 2 km. Land use scenarios are spatially redistributed, both randomly and topography based. Using these data, water fluxes are calculated on a daily time step for a 16 year time period without further calibration. Simulation results are used to identify grid size, distribution and model dependent scenario effects. In the case of data aggregation, all applied models react sensitively to grid size. WASIM and TOPLATS simulate constant water balances for grid sizes from 50 m to 300–500 m, SWAT is more sensitive to input data aggregation, simulating constant water balances between 50 m and 200 m grid size. The calculation of scenario effects is less robust to data aggregation. The maximum acceptable grid size reduces to 200–300 m for TOPLATS and WASIM. In case of spatial distribution, SWAT and TOPLATS are slightly sensitive to a redistribution of land use (below 1.5% for water balance terms), whereas WASIM shows almost no reaction. Because the aggregation effects were stronger than the redistribution effects, it is concluded that spatial discretisation is more important than spatial distribution. As the aggregation effect was mainly associated with a change in land use fraction, it is concluded that accuracy of data sets is much more important than a high spatial resolution.     

Landscape controls on long‐term runoff in subhumid heterogeneous Boreal Plains catchments

We compared median runoff (R) and precipitation (P) relationships over 25 years from 20 mesoscale (50 to 5,000 km²) catchments on the Boreal Plains, Alberta, Canada, to understand controls on water sink and source dynamics in water‐limited, low‐relief northern environments. Long‐term catchment R and runoff efficiency (RP^?1) were low and varied spatially by over an order of magnitude (3 to 119 mm/year, 1 to 27%). Intercatchment differences were not associated with small variations in climate. The partitioning of P into evapotranspiration (ET) and R instead reflected the interplay between underlying glacial deposit texture, overlying soil‐vegetation land cover, and regional slope. Correlation and principal component analyses results show that peatland‐swamp wetlands were the major source areas of water. The lowest estimates of median annual catchment ET (321 to 395 mm) and greatest R (60 to 119 mm, 13 to 27% of P) were observed in low‐relief, peatland‐swamp dominated catchments, within both fine‐textured clay‐plain and coarse‐textured glacial deposits. In contrast, open‐water wetlands and deciduous‐mixedwood forest land covers acted as water sinks, and less catchment R was observed with increases in proportional coverage of these land covers. In catchments dominated by hummocky moraines, long‐term runoff was restricted to 10 mm/year, or 2% of P. This reflects the poor surface‐drainage networks and slightly greater regional slope of the fine‐textured glacial deposit, coupled with the large soil‐water and depression storage and higher actual ET of associated shallow open‐water marsh wetland and deciduous‐forest land covers. This intercatchment study enhances current conceptual frameworks for predicting water yield in the Boreal Plains based on the sink and source functions of glacial landforms and soil‐vegetation land covers. It offers the capability within this hydro‐geoclimatic region to design reclaimed catchments with desired hydrological functionality and associated tolerances to climate or land‐use changes and inform land management decisions based on effective catchment‐scale conceptual understanding.     

Spatio‐temporal controls of snowmelt and runoff generation during rain‐on‐snow events in a mid‐latitude mountain catchment

A network of 30 standalone snow monitoring stations was used to investigate the snow cover distribution, snowmelt dynamics, and runoff generation during two rain‐on‐snow (ROS) events in a 40 km² montane catchment in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany. A multiple linear regression analysis using elevation, aspect, and land cover as predictors for the snow water equivalent (SWE) distribution within the catchment was applied on an hourly basis for two significant ROS flood events that occurred in December 2012. The available snowmelt water, liquid precipitation, as well as the total retention storage of the snow cover were considered in order to estimate the amount of water potentially available for the runoff generation. The study provides a spatially and temporally distributed picture of how the two observed ROS floods developed in the catchment. It became evident that the retention capacity of the snow cover is a crucial mechanism during ROS. It took several hours before water was released from the snowpack during the first ROS event, while retention storage was exceeded within 1 h from the start of the second event. Elevation was the most important terrain feature. South‐facing terrain contributed more water for runoff than north‐facing slopes, and only slightly more runoff was generated at open compared to forested areas. The results highlight the importance of snowmelt together with liquid precipitation for the generation of flood runoff during ROS and the large temporal and spatial variability of the relevant processes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monitoring and modelling of hydrological processes in the semiarid region of Brazil: The Cariri experimental basins

Catchments have highly variable yields of runoff and soil erosion. The size, land use and the surface cover play a significant role and influence the catchment response and parameter values of simulation models. Two experimental basins—the Cariri basins—were equipped in a semi-arid region of Brazil, for obtaining runoff and sediment yield at different catchment scales, as well as, to evaluate the influence of the land use and surface cover. In the first basin, located in the municipality of Sumé, the field studies were carried out at two different scales: four micro-catchments with an area of around 0.5 ha and nine standard Wischmeier-type erosion plots of 100 m². The experimental units had varied vegetation and management. They were subjected only to natural rainfall events, and were monitored from 1982 to 1991. The total runoff and total sediment yield were determined for each of the events. The installations in the second basin, in the municipality of São João do Cariri, from 1999, include two erosion plots, three micro-catchments, and two sub-catchments of a small basin. These basins are still being monitored for runoff and sediment production. Among the micro-catchments two are nested to detect any scale effect at the micro-catchment level. Nearly 600 events of precipitation, that produced runoff in at least one of the experimental units, have been registered. These data have been used to evaluate the influence of various factors, including cultivation practices and to calibrate hydrological models for plots and micro-catchments. Parameters have been tested by means of cross validations among micro-catchments and sub-catchments. The data sets are made available to all the catchment hydrology researchers and others at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4690886 .