Abstract
AbstractField measurements and observations have shown that wind erosion is a threat for numerous arable lands in the European Union (EU). Wind erosion affects both the semi‐arid areas of the Mediterranean region as well as the temperate climate areas of the northern European countries. Yet, there is still a lack of knowledge, which limits the understanding about where, when and how heavily wind erosion is affecting European arable lands. Currently, the challenge is to integrate the insights gained by recent pan‐European assessments, local measurements, observations and field‐scale model exercises into a new generation of regional‐scale wind erosion models. This is an important step to make the complex matter of wind erosion dynamics more tangible for decision‐makers and to support further research on a field‐scale level. A geographic information system version of the Revised Wind Erosion Equation was developed to (i) move a step forward into the large‐scale wind erosion modelling; (ii) evaluate the soil loss potential due to wind erosion in the arable land of the EU; and (iii) provide a tool useful to support field‐based observations of wind erosion. The model was designed to predict the daily soil loss potential at a ca. 1 km2 spatial resolution. The average annual soil loss predicted by geographic information system Revised Wind Erosion Equation in the EU arable land totalled 0·53 Mg ha−1 y−1, with the second quantile and the fourth quantile equal to 0·3 and 1·9 Mg ha−1 y−1, respectively. The cross‐validation shows a high consistency with local measurements reported in literature. © 2016 The Authors. Land Degradation and Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Highlights
Soil erosion by wind is a serious environmental problem (Lal, 1994) often resulting in severe forms of soil degradation (Dregne & Chou, 1992; Warren, 2003; Zhang et al, 2014)
The soil loss potential due to wind erosion was estimated by the geographic information system (GIS)-Revised Wind Erosion Equation (RWEQ) for the 1·17 million cells into which the arable land of the European Union (EU)-28 was subdivided
The spatial pattern of soil erosion was divided into six classes defined according to the soil loss data distribution (Figure 2)
Summary
Soil erosion by wind (wind erosion) is a serious environmental problem (Lal, 1994) often resulting in severe forms of soil degradation (Dregne & Chou, 1992; Warren, 2003; Zhang et al, 2014). The accumulation of matter stripped through the action of wind during the postglacial period constituted an importing geomorphic process (Livingstone & Warren, 1996) It formed to the fertile loess soils that cover large areas of Europe and North America, where highly productive farming has developed ever since (Roose, 1996; Haase et al, 2007). Intensive farming has increased the frequency and magnitude of this geomorphic process with consequences especially for sensitive lands, important for food production (Dostal et al, 2006; Funk & Reuter, 2006; Wang et al, 2015) Land management practices such as intensive crop cultivation, increased
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