Hydrologic‐response simulations for the North Fork of Caspar Creek: second‐growth,clear‐cut,new‐growth,and cumulative watershed effect scenarios

This study demonstrates that comprehensive hydrologic‐response simulation can be a useful tool for studying cumulative watershed effects. The simulations reported here were conducted with the Integrated Hydrology Model (InHM). The location of the 473 ha study site is the North Fork of the Caspar Creek Experimental Watershed, near Fort Bragg, California. Existing information from a long‐term monitoring programme and new soil‐hydraulic property measurements made for this study were used to parameterize InHM. Long‐term continuous wet‐season simulations were conducted for the North Fork catchments and main stem for second‐growth, clear‐cut and new‐growth scenarios. The simulation results show that the increases and decreases, respectively, for throughfall and potential evapotranspiration related to clear‐cutting had quantifiable impacts on the simulated hydrologic response at both the catchment and watershed scales. Model performance was best for the new‐growth simulation scenarios. To improve upon the simulations reported here would require additional soil‐hydraulic property information from across the study area. Although principally focused on the integrated hydrologic response, the effort reported here demonstrates the potential for characterizing distributed responses with physics‐based simulation. The search for a comprehensive understanding of hydrologic response will require both data‐intensive discovery and concept‐development simulation, from both integrated and distributed perspectives. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Matching hydrologic response to measured effective hydraulic conductivity

The objective of this study was to test the practicability of defining hydrologic response units as combinations of soil, land use and topography for modelling infiltration at the hillslope and catchment scales. In an experimental catchment in the East African Highlands (Kwalei, Tanzania), three methods of measuring infiltration were compared for their ability to capture the spatial variability of effective hydraulic conductivity: the constant head (CH) method; the tension infiltration (TI) method; and the mini‐rainfall simulation (RS) method. The three methods yielded different probability distributions of effective hydraulic conductivity and suggested different types of hydrologic response units. Independently from these measurements, the occurrence of infiltration‐excess overland flow was monitored over an area of 6 ha by means of overland flow detectors. The observed pattern of overland flow occurrence did not match any of the patterns suggested by the infiltration measurements. Instead, clusters of spots with overland flow were practically independent from field borders. Geostatistical analysis of the overland flow confirmed the absence of spatial correlation for distances over 40 m. The RS method yielded the pattern closest to the observations, probably because the method simulated better the processes that trigger infiltration‐excess overland flow, i.e. soil sealing and infiltration through macroporosity. The RS hydrologic response unit correlated significantly with observed overland flow frequency. However, the location of clusters and ‘hot spots’ of overland flow remained largely unexplained by land use, soil and topographic variables. It is concluded that using such landscape variables to define hydrologic units may create artificial boundaries that do no correspond to physical realities, especially if the stochastic component within hydrologic units is neglected. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of a soil moisture‐based distributed hydrologic model for determining hydrologically based critical source areas

A simple grid cell‐based distributed hydrologic model was developed to provide spatial information on hydrologic components for determining hydrologically based critical source areas. The model represents the critical process (soil moisture variation) to run‐off generation accounting for both local and global water balance. In this way, it simulates both infiltration excess run‐off and saturation excess run‐off. The model was tested by multisite and multivariable evaluation on the 50‐km² Little River Experimental Watershed I in Georgia, U.S. and 2 smaller nested subwatersheds. Water balance, hydrograph, and soil moisture were simulated and compared to observed data. For streamflow calibration, the daily Nash‐Sutcliffe coefficient was 0.78 at the watershed outlet and 0.56 and 0.75 at the 2 nested subwatersheds. For the validation period, the Nash‐Sutcliffe coefficients were 0.79 at the watershed outlet and 0.85 and 0.83 at the 2 subwatersheds. The per cent bias was less than 15% for all sites. For soil moisture, the model also predicted the rising and declining trends at 4 of the 5 measurement sites. The spatial distribution of surface run‐off simulated by the model was mainly controlled by local characteristics (precipitation, soil properties, and land cover) on dry days and by global watershed characteristics (relative position within the watershed and hydrologic connectivity) on wet days when saturation excess run‐off was simulated. The spatial details of run‐off generation and travel time along flow paths provided by the model are helpful for watershed managers to further identify critical source areas of non‐point source pollution and develop best management practices.     

Two‐dimensional continuous simulation of spatiotemporally varied hydrological processes using the time‐area method

Distributed, continuous hydrologic models promote better understanding of hydrology and enable integrated hydrologic analyses by providing a more detailed picture of water transport processes across the varying landscape. However, such models are not widely used in routine modelling practices, due in part to the extensive data input requirements, computational demands, and complexity of routing algorithms. We developed a two‐dimensional continuous hydrologic model, HYSTAR, using a time‐area method within a grid‐based spatial data model with the goal of providing an alternative way to simulate spatiotemporally varied watershed‐scale hydrologic processes. The model calculates the direct runoff hydrograph by coupling a time‐area routing scheme with a dynamic rainfall excess sub‐model implemented here using a modified curve number method with an hourly time step, explicitly considering downstream ‘reinfiltration’ of routed surface runoff. Soil moisture content is determined at each time interval based on a water balance equation, and overland and channel runoff is routed on time‐area maps, representing spatial variation in hydraulic characteristics for each time interval in a storm event. Simulating runoff hydrographs does not depend on unit hydrograph theory or on solution of the Saint Venant equation, yet retains the simplicity of a unit hydrograph approach and the capability of explicitly simulating two‐dimensional flow routing. The model provided acceptable performance in predicting daily and monthly runoff for a 6‐year period for a watershed in Virginia (USA) using readily available geographic information about the watershed landscape. Spatial and temporal variability in simulated effective runoff depth and time area maps dynamically show the areas of the watershed contributing to the direct runoff hydrograph at the outlet over time, consistent with the variable source area overland flow generation mechanism. The model offers a way to simulate watershed processes and runoff hydrographs using the time‐area method, providing a simple, efficient, and sound framework that explicitly represents mechanisms of spatially and temporally varied hydrologic processes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Systematic variation of soil infiltration rates within and between the components of the vegetation mosaic in an Australian desert landscape

Vegetation mosaics have commonly been thought to include two principal zones with distinctly different hydrology: relatively bare and impermeable runoff source zones (intergroves) and more strongly absorbing vegetated runon zones (groves). However, the data required to verify the internal uniformity of hydrologic response within these components of mosaic landscapes have been lacking, as have data on the nature (abrupt or gradational) of the boundaries between them. This study examines the degree of internal uniformity of key soil properties in the intergroves and groves of an Australian vegetation mosaic. Infiltration rates, soil water content, shear strength, bulk density and texture were determined at intervals of 1·5–2·5 m across several grove–intergrove cycles of an Australian banded shrubland. Results demonstrate that order‐of‐magnitude variability in soil infiltration rates can occur across intergroves, with lesser variation in groves. Patterns of infiltration are systematically related to slope position. Rates are relatively high in the uppermost parts of the intergrove, and fall to low values only in the lowermost intergrove where soils are mechanically strong. Infiltration rates increase rapidly from the lowermost intergrove to reach maxima within the upper to middle grove, from where rates once again decline toward the next intergrove. However, there is only a gradational change in infiltration rates across the pioneer zone–grove boundary, which is the sharpest of the mosaic boundaries when identified using plant cover data. Hydrologic models built on the presumption that mapped plant cover units are equally distinct hydrologically may need to be refined to incorporate the presence of systematic internal variability of infiltration rates and gradational change in soil hydraulic properties. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Meta‐analysis of field‐saturated hydraulic conductivity recovery following wildland fire: Applications for hydrologic model parameterization and resilience assessment

Hydrologic recovery after wildfire is critical for restoring the ecosystem services of protecting of human lives and infrastructure from hazards and delivering water supply of sufficient quality and quantity. Recovery of soil‐hydraulic properties, such as field‐saturated hydraulic conductivity (K_fs), is a key factor for assessing the duration of watershed‐scale flash flood and debris flow risks after wildfire. Despite the crucial role of K_fs in parameterizing numerical hydrologic models to predict the magnitude of postwildfire run‐off and erosion, existing quantitative relations to predict K_fs recovery with time since wildfire are lacking. Here, we conduct meta‐analyses of 5 datasets from the literature that measure or estimate K_fs with time since wildfire for longer than 3‐year duration. The meta‐analyses focus on fitting 2 quantitative relations (linear and non‐linear logistic) to explain trends in K_fs temporal recovery. The 2 relations adequately described temporal recovery except for 1 site where macropore flow dominated infiltration and K_fs recovery. This work also suggests that K_fs can have low hydrologic resistance (large postfire changes), and moderate to high hydrologic stability (recovery time relative to disturbance recurrence interval) and resilience (recovery of hydrologic function and provision of ecosystem services). Future K_fs relations could more explicitly incorporate processes such as soil‐water repellency, ground cover and soil structure regeneration, macropore recovery, and vegetation regrowth.     

A multi‐temporal analysis of AMSR‐E data for flood and discharge monitoring during the 2008 flood in Iowa

The objective of this work is to demonstrate the potential of using passive microwave data to monitor flood and discharge conditions and to infer watershed hydraulic and hydrologic parameters. The case study is the major flood in Iowa in summer 2008. A new Polarisation Ratio Variation Index (PRVI) was developed based on a multi‐temporal analysis of 37 GHz satellite imagery from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR‐E) to calculate and detect anomalies in soil moisture and/or inundated areas. The Robust Satellite Technique (RST) which is a change detection approach based on the analysis of historical satellite records was adopted. A rating curve has been developed to assess the relationship between PRVI values and discharge observations downstream. A time‐lag term has been introduced and adjusted to account for the changing delay between PRVI and streamflow. Moreover, the Kalman filter has been used to update the rating curve parameters in near real time. The temporal variability of the b exponent in the rating curve formula shows that it converges toward a constant value. A consistent 21‐day time lag, very close to an estimate of the time of concentration, was obtained. The agreement between observed discharge downstream and estimated discharge with and without parameters adjustment was 65 and 95%, respectively. This demonstrates the interesting role that passive microwave can play in monitoring flooding and wetness conditions and estimating key hydrologic parameters. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of land use on the hydraulic properties of the topsoil in a small French catchment

The hydraulic properties of the topsoil control the partition of rainfall into infiltration and runoff at the soil surface. They must be characterized for distributed hydrological modelling. This study presents the results of a field campaign documenting topsoil hydraulic properties in a small French suburban catchment (7 km²) located near Lyon, France. Two types of infiltration tests were performed: single ring infiltration tests under positive head and tension‐disk infiltration using a mini‐disk. Both categories were processed using the BEST—Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters—method to derive parameters describing the retention and hydraulic conductivity curves. Dry bulk density and particle size data were also sampled. Almost all the topsoils were found to belong to the sandy loam soil class. No significant differences in hydraulic properties were found in terms of pedologic units, but the results showed a high impact of land use on these properties. The lowest dry bulk density values were obtained in forested soils with the highest organic matter content. Permanent pasture soils showed intermediate values, whereas the highest values were encountered in cultivated lands. For saturated hydraulic conductivity, the highest values were found in broad‐leaved forests and small woods. The complementary use of tension‐disk and positive head infiltration tests highlighted a sharp increase of hydraulic conductivity between near saturation and saturated conditions, attributed to macroporosity effect. The ratio of median saturated hydraulic conductivity to median hydraulic conductivity at a pressure of − 20 mm of water was about 50. The study suggests that soil texture, such as used in most pedo‐transfer functions, might not be sufficient to properly map the variability of soil hydraulic properties. Land use information should be considered in the parameterizations of topsoil within hydrological models to better represent in situ conditions, as illustrated in the paper. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A simple concept for calibrating runoff thresholds in quasi‐distributed variable source area watershed models

Most semi‐distributed watershed water quality models divide the watershed into hydrologic response units (HRU) with no flow among them. This is problematic when watersheds are delineated to include variable source areas (VSAs) because it is the lateral flows from upslope areas to downslope areas that generate VSAs. Although hydrologic modellers have often successfully calibrated these types of models, there can still be considerable uncertainty in model results. In this paper, a topographic‐index‐based method is described and tested to distribute effective soil water holding capacity among HRUs, which can be subsequently adjusted using the watershed baseflow coefficient. The method is tested using a version of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model that simulates VSA runoff and is applied to two watersheds: a New York State (NYS) watershed, and one in the head waters of the Blue Nile Basin (BNB) in Ethiopia. Daily streamflow predicted using effective soil water storage capacities based only on the topographic index were reassuringly accurate in both the NYS watershed (daily Nash Sutcliffe (E) = 0·73) and in the BNB (E = 0·70). Using the baseflow coefficient to adjust the effective soil water storage capacity only slightly improved streamflow predictions in NYS (E = 0·75) but substantially improved the BNB predictions (E = 0·80). By comparison, the standard SWAT model, which uses the traditional look‐up tables to determine a runoff curve number, performed considerably less accurately in un‐calibrated form (E = 0·51 for NYS and E = 0·45 for BNB), but improved substantially when explicitly calibrated to streamflow measurements (E = 0·76 for NYS and E = 0·67 for the BNB). The calibration method presented here provides a parsimonious, systematic approach to using established models in VSA watersheds that reduces the ambiguity inherent in model calibration. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The timing and magnitude of changes to Hortonian overland flow at the watershed scale during the post-fire recovery process

Extreme hydrologic responses following wildfires can lead to floods and debris flows with costly economic and societal impacts. Process-based hydrologic and geomorphic models used to predict the downstream impacts of wildfire must account for temporal changes in hydrologic parameters related to the generation and subsequent routing of infiltration-excess overland flow across the landscape. However, we lack quantitative relationships showing how parameters change with time-since-burning, particularly at the watershed scale. To assess variations in best-fit hydrologic parameters with time, we used the KINEROS2 hydrological model to explore temporal changes in hillslope saturated hydraulic conductivity (K_sh) and channel hydraulic roughness (n_c) following a wildfire in the upper Arroyo Seco watershed (41.5 km²), which burned during the 2009 Station fire in the San Gabriel Mountains, California, USA. This study explored runoff-producing storms between 2008 and 2014 to infer watershed hydraulic properties by calibrating the model to observations at the watershed outlet. Modelling indicates K_sh is lowest in the first year following the fire and then increases at an average rate of approximately 4.2 mm/h/year during the first 5 years of recovery. The estimated values for K_sh in the first year following the fire are similar to those obtained in previous studies on smaller watersheds (<1.5 km²) following the Station fire, suggesting hydrologic changes detected here can be applied to lower-order watersheds. Hydraulic roughness, n_c, was lowest in the first year following the fire, but increased by a factor of 2 after 1 year of recovery. Post-fire observations suggest changes in n_c are due to changes in grain roughness and vegetation in channels. These results provide quantitative constraints on the magnitude of fire-induced hydrologic changes following severe wildfires in chaparral-dominated ecosystems as well as the timing of hydrologic recovery.     

Geomorphic controls on the physical and hydrologic properties of soils in a valley floor

The distribution of soil hydraulic and physical properties strongly influences runoff processes in landscapes. Although much work has been done to quantify and predict the properties of hillslope soils, far less is known about the distribution of soil properties in valley floors. A technique that links the estimation and distribution of soil hydraulic properties in valleys, with easily identified geomorphic features, was developed along a 2 km length of a valley at Brooks Creek in New South Wales, Australia. Soil physical and hydraulic property data were collected across a set of floodplain and fan features within the valley and analysed statistically to determine if soil properties varied significantly between geomorphic features and stratigraphic layers. The results show that the depth‐averaged saturated hydraulic conductivity, K_s, of the soil varies significantly with landform: fan units have K_g values that are twice that of floodplains and colluvial toeslope deposits have K_s values four times higher than floodplains. Given the notorious variability of K_s values in space, the strong statistical separation of soil properties by landform, backed up by strong separation of soil particle size by landform, suggests a way forward in understanding the distribution of soil properties in valleys and their influence on catchment hydrology. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling the impacts of spatial heterogeneity in soil hydraulic properties on hydrological process in the upper reach of the Heihe River in the Qilian Mountains,Northwest China

Spatial heterogeneity of soil has great impacts on dynamic processes of the hydrological systems. However, it is challenging and expensive to obtain spatial distribution of soil hydraulic properties, which often requires extensive soil sampling and observations and intensive laboratory analyses, especially in high elevation, hard to access mountainous areas. This study evaluates the impacts of soil heterogeneity on hydrological process in a high elevation, topographically complex watershed in Northwest China. Two approaches were used to derive the spatial heterogeneity of soil properties in the study watershed: (1) the spatial clustering method, Full‐Order‐CLK was used to determine five soil heterogeneous clusters (configurations 97, 80, 60, 40 and 20) through large number of soil sampling and in situ observations, and (2) the average values of soil hydraulic properties for each soil type were derived from the coarse provincial soil data sets (Gansu Soil Handbook at 1 : 1 000 000 scale). Subsequently, Soil and Water Assessment Tool model was used to quantify the impact of the spatial heterogeneity of soil hydraulic properties on hydrological process in the study watershed. Results show the simulations by Soil and Water Assessment Tool with the spatially clustered soil hydraulic information from the field sampling data had much better representation of the soil heterogeneity and had more accurate performance than the model using the average soil property values for each soil type derived from the coarse soil data sets. Thus, incorporating detailed field sampling, soil heterogeneity data greatly improve performance in hydrological modelling. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed and integrated response of a geographic information system‐based hydrologic model in the eastern Palouse region,Idaho

Verification of distributed hydrologic models is rare owing to the lack of spatially detailed field measurements and a common mismatch between the scale at which soil hydraulic properties are measured and the scale of a single modelling unit. In this study, two of the most commonly calibrated parameters, i.e. soil depth and the vertical distribution of lateral saturated hydraulic conductivity K_s, were eliminated by a spatially detailed soil characterization and results of a hillslope‐scale field experiment. The soil moisture routing (SMR) model, a geographic information system‐based hydrologic model, was modified to represent the dominant hydrologic processes for the Palouse region of northern Idaho. Modifications included K_s as a double exponential function of depth in a single soil layer, a snow accumulation and melt algorithm, and a simple relationship between storage and perched water depth (PWD) using the drainable porosity. The model was applied to a 2 ha catchment without calibration to measured data. Distributed responses were compared with observed PWD over a 3‐year period on a 10 m × 15 m grid. Integrated responses were compared with observed surface runoff at the catchment outlet. The modified SMR model simulated the PWD fluctuations remarkably well, especially considering the shallow soils in this catchment: a 0·20 m error in PWD is equivalent to only a 1·6% error in predicted soil moisture content. Simulations also captured PWD fluctuations during a year with high spatial variability of snow accumulation and snowmelt rates at upslope, mid‐slope, and toe slope positions with errors as low as 0·09 m, 0·12 m, and 0·12 m respectively. Errors in distributed and integrated model simulations were attributed mostly to misrepresentation of rain events and snowmelt timing problems. In one location in the catchment, simulated PWD was consistently greater than observed PWD, indicating a localized recharge zone, which was not identified by the soil morphological survey. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of soil‐surface types on the overall runoff of the Tabernas badlands (south‐east Spain): field data and model approaches

The Tabernas desert, an extensive badlands area in Almeria province (south‐east Spain), is characterized by a high variability in soil surface cover and soil properties along with important topographical contrasts giving rise to a wide range of hydrological behaviour. A double approach through field monitoring and modelling has been used to ascertain the influence of soil‐surface variability on the overall hydrological response. Small plots were monitored for 3 years to assess runoff from the different surface types. Data provided by the long‐term monitoring of three small catchments formed by different soil surfaces were used to find out the specific contribution of each soil surface to the catchment runoff. A simple spatially distributed model was built to predict runoff generation based on the infiltration rate of each soil‐surface type (defined as terrain units with the same cover, the same soil type and on the same landform). Plot results prove that the soil surface units within the study area behave differently in terms of hydrological response to natural rainfall. These responses are explained by the types of cover, topographical characteristics and soil properties. When runoff events are simple (with one or two runoff peaks), the modelled hydrographs reproduce the hydrographs observed reasonably well, but in complex events (with several runoff peaks) the adjustment is not as good. The model also shows the influence of the spatial distribution of soil surfaces on the overall runoff, aiding exploration of the spatial hydrological relationships among different landscape units. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Land cover effects on runoff patterns in eastern Piedmont (USA) watersheds

Physiography and land cover determine the hydrologic response of watersheds to climatic events. However, vast differences in climate regimes and variation of landscape attributes among watersheds (including size) have prevented the establishment of general relationships between land cover and runoff patterns across broad scales. This paper addresses these difficulties by using power spectral analysis to characterize area‐normalized runoff patterns and then compare these patterns with landscape features among watersheds within the same physiographic region. We assembled long‐term precipitation and runoff data for 87 watersheds (first to seventh order) within the eastern Piedmont (USA) that contained a wide variety of land cover types, collected environmental data for each watershed, and compared the datasets using a variety of statistical measures. The effect of land cover on runoff patterns was confirmed. Urban‐dominated watersheds were flashier and had less hydrologic memory compared with forest‐dominated watersheds, whereas watersheds with high wetland coverage had greater hydrologic memory. We also detected a 10–15% urban threshold above which urban coverage became the dominant control on runoff patterns. When spectral properties of runoff were compared across stream orders, a threshold after the third order was detected at which watershed processes became dominant over precipitation regime in determining runoff patterns. Finally, we present a matrix that characterizes the hydrologic signatures of rivers based on precipitation versus landscape effects and low‐frequency versus high‐frequency events. The concepts and methods presented can be generally applied to all river systems to characterize multiscale patterns of watershed runoff. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing hydrogeologic controls on dynamic groundwater storage using long‐term instrumental records of water table levels

This study analyzes a long‐term regional compilation of water table response to climate variability based on 124 long‐term groundwater wells distributed across New England, USA, screened in a variety of geologic materials. The New England region of the USA is located in a humid‐temperature climate underlain by low‐storage‐fractured metamorphic and crystalline bedrock dissected by north–south trending valleys filled with glacial and post‐glacial valley fill sediments. Uplands are covered by thin glacial till that comprises more than 60% of the total area. Annual and multi‐annual responses of the water table to climate variability are assessed to understand how local hydraulic properties and hydrogeologic setting (located in recharge/discharge region) of the aquifer influence the hydrologic sensitivity of the aquifer system to climate variability. This study documents that upland aquifer systems dominated by thin deposits of surface till comprise ~70% of the active and dynamic storage of the region. Total aquifer storage changes of +5 to ?7 km³ occur over the region during the study interval. The storage response is dominated by thin and low permeability surficial till aquifer that fills and drains on a multi‐annual basis and serves as the main mechanism to deliver water to valley fill aquifers and underlying bedrock aquifers. Whereas the till aquifer system is traditionally neglected as an important storage reservoir, this study highlights the importance of a process‐based understanding of how different landscape hydrogeologic units contribute to the overall hydrologic response of a region.     

Improving the spatial representation of soil properties and hydrology using topographically derived initialization processes in the SWAT model

Topography exerts critical controls on many hydrologic, geomorphologic and biophysical processes. However, many watershed modelling systems use topographic data only to define basin boundaries and stream channels, neglecting opportunities to account for topographic controls on processes such as soil genesis, soil moisture distributions and hydrological response. Here, we demonstrate a method that uses topographic data to adjust spatial soil morphologic and hydrologic attributes: texture, depth to the C‐horizon, saturated conductivity, bulk density, porosity and the water capacities at field (33 kpa) and wilting point (1500 kpa) tensions. As a proof of concept and initial performance test, the values of the topographically adjusted soil parameters and those from the Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO; available at 1 : 20 000 scale) were compared with measured soil pedon pit data in the Grasslands Soil and Water Research Lab watershed in Riesel, TX. The topographically adjusted soils were better correlated with the pit measurements than were the SSURGO values. We then incorporated the topographically adjusted soils into an initialization of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool model for 15 Riesel research watersheds to investigate how changes in soil properties influence modelled hydrological responses at the field scale. The results showed that the topographically adjusted soils produced better runoff predictions in 50% of the fields, with the SSURGO soils performing better in the remainder. In addition, the a priori adjusted soils result in fewer calibrated model parameters. These results indicate that adjusting soil properties based on topography can result in more accurate soil characterization and, in some cases, improve model performance. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Long‐term effects of management practices on water‐driven soil erosion in an intense agricultural sub‐watershed: monitoring and modelling

The overarching objective of this research was to provide an improved understanding of the role of land use and associated management practices on long‐term water‐driven soil erosion in small agricultural watersheds by coupling the established, physically based, distributed parameter Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model with long‐term hydrologic, land use and soil data. A key step towards achieving this objective was the development of a detailed methodology for model calibration using physical ranges of key governing parameters such as effective hydraulic conductivity, critical hydraulic shear stress and rill/inter‐rill erodibilities. The physical ranges for these governing parameters were obtained based on in situ observations within the South Amana Sub‐Watershed (SASW) (～26 km²) of the Clear Creek, IA watershed where detailed documentation of the different land uses was available for a period of nearly 100 years. A quasi validation of the calibrated model was conducted through long‐term field estimates of water and sediment discharge at the outlet of SASW and also by comparing the results with data reported in the literature for other Iowa watersheds exhibiting similar biogeochemical properties. Once WEPP was verified, ‘thought experiments’ were conducted to test our hypothesis that land use and associated management practices may be the major control of long‐term erosion in small agricultural watersheds such as SASW. Those experiments were performed using the dominant 2‐year crop rotations in the SASW, namely, fall till corn–no till bean (FTC‐NTB), no till bean–spring till corn (NTB‐STC) and no till corn–fall till bean (NTC‐FTB), which comprised approximately 90% of the total acreage in SASW. Results of this study showed that for all crop rotations, a strong correspondence existed between soil erosion rates and high‐magnitude precipitation events during the period of mid‐April and late July, as expected. The magnitude of this correspondence, however, was strongly affected by the crop rotation characteristics, such as canopy/residue cover provided by the crop, and the type and associated timing of tillage. Tillage type (i.e. primary and secondary tillages) affected the roughness of the soil surface and resulted in increases of the rill/inter‐rill erodibilities up to 35% and 300%, respectively. Particularly, the NTC‐FTB crop rotation, being the most intense land use in terms of tillage operations, caused the highest average annual erosion rate within the SASW, yielding quadrupled erosion rates comparatively to NTB‐STC. The impacts of tillage operation were further exacerbated by the timing of the operations in relation to precipitation events. Timing of operations affected the ‘life‐time’ of residue cover and as a result, the degree of protection that residue cover offers against the water action on the soil surface. In the case of NTC‐FTB crop rotation, dense corn residue stayed on the ground for only 40 days, whereas for the other two rotations, corn residue provided a protective layer for nearly 7 months, lessening thus the degree of soil erosion. The cumulative effects of tillage type and timing in conjunction with canopy/residue cover led to the conclusion that land management practices can significantly amplify or deamplify the impact of precipitation on long‐term soil erosion in small agricultural watersheds. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A semi-physical sediment yield model for estimation of suspended sediment in loess region

Sediment yield is a complex function of many environmental factors including climate,hydrology,vegetation,basin topography,soil types,and land cover.We present a new semi-physical watershed sediment yield model for the estimation of suspended sediment in loess region.This model is composed by three modules in slope,gully,and stream phases.For slope sediment yield,a balance equation is established based on the concept of hydraulic erosion capacity and soil erosion resistance capacity.According to the statistical analysis of watershed characteristics,we use an exponential curve to approximately describe the spatial variability of watershed soil erosion resistance capacity.In gully phase,the relationship between gully sediment concentration and flow velocity is established based on the Bagnold'stream power function.In the stream phase,we assume a linear dependence of the sediment volume in the reach on the weighted sediment input and output.The proposed sediment yield model is operated in conjunction with a conceptual hydrologic model,and is tested over 16 regions including testing grounds,and small,medium and large watersheds in the loess plateau region in the mid-reach of Yellow River.Our results indicate that the model is reasonable in structure and is able to provide a good simulation of sediment generation and transportation processes at both flood event scale and inter-annual time scale.The proposed model is generally applicable to the watersheds with soil texture similar to that of the loess plateau region in the Yellow River basin in China.     

Effects of spatial aggregation of soil spatial information on watershed hydrological modelling

Many researchers have examined the impact of detailed soil spatial information on hydrological modelling due to the fact that such information serves as important input to hydrological modelling, yet is difficult and expensive to obtain. Most research has focused on the effects at single scales; however, the effects in the context of spatial aggregation across different scales are largely missing. This paper examines such effects by comparing the simulated runoffs across scales from watershed models based on two different levels of soil spatial information: the 10‐m‐resolution soil data derived from the Soil‐Land Inference Model (SoLIM) and the 1:24000 scale Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database in the United States. The study was conducted at three different spatial scales: two at different watershed size levels (referred to as full watershed and sub‐basin, respectively) and one at the model minimum simulation unit level. A fully distributed hydrologic model (WetSpa) and a semi‐distributed model (SWAT) were used to assess the effects. The results show that at the minimum simulation unit level the differences in simulated runoff are large, but the differences gradually decrease as the spatial scale of the simulation units increases. For sub‐basins larger than 10 km² in the study area, stream flows simulated by spatially detailed SoLIM soil data do not significantly vary from those by SSURGO. The effects of spatial scale are shown to correlate with aggregation effect of the watershed routing process. The unique findings of this paper provide an important and unified perspective on the different views reported in the literature concerning how spatial detail of soil data affects watershed modelling. Different views result from different scales at which those studies were conducted. In addition, the findings offer a potentially useful basis for selecting details of soil spatial information appropriate for watershed modelling at a given scale. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.