Abstract
Biancana badlands are peculiar landforms in the Basilicata region of Italy resulting from the local combination of geological, geomorphological, and climatic settings. The evolution of badlands mainly depends on slope erosion, which is controlled by the angle, exposure, and vegetation of the slope and its interactions with insolation, rain, and wind. Multi-temporal, detailed, high-resolution surveys have led researchers to assess changes in slopes to investigate the spatial distributions of erosion and deposition and the influence of wind-driven rain (WDR). A comparison between two terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) point clouds surveyed during 2006 and 2016 fieldwork showed that the study area suffers from intense erosion that is not spatially uniform on all sides of biancane. By combining slope and exposure data and the cloud of difference (CoD), derived from a 3D model, we showed that all the steepest southern sides of biancane suffered the most intense erosion. Because splash and sheet erosion triggers sediment displacement, the analysis was also focused on the intensity and direction of WDR. We performed a real field experiment analysing erosion rates over 10 years in relation to daily and hourly wind data (direction and speed), and we found that frequent winds of moderate force, combined with moderate to heavy rainfall, contributed to the observed increase in soil erosion when combined with the insolation effect. Our results show how all the considered factors interact in a complex pattern to control the spatial distribution of erosion.
Highlights
Badlands are landforms typical of semiarid regions, under a high runoff rate and a low vegetation cover [1,2]
The processing of digital data allows us to measure how the cloud of difference (CoD) varies in the area, both for biancane sides with slope angles greater and lower than 45◦ and according to the orientation of the sides (Figure 5)
The multi-temporal high-resolution topographical survey of biancane-dominated hillsides conducted in this study measured the medium-term rates of erosion and deposition over a 10-year timespan in this kind of landscape, and provided a detailed indication of how the erosion and deposition rates were spatially distributed
Summary
Badlands are landforms typical of semiarid regions, under a high runoff rate and a low vegetation cover [1,2] These forms are extended in almost all of the Mediterranean basin, depending on the bedrock and soil properties [3,4,5,6]. Several studies have analysed changes in hydrological catchments, quantifying the accumulated or eroded volumes and detecting the morphological processes acting on badlands [22,24,27] In these studies, the factors acting on badland hillslopes, such as the slope angle, orientation, vegetation, rain, and wind, were identified; badlands are complex landscapes in which the interaction between different geomorphological processes is present [32]. JAannuianrcyr.eAasneiinncrreaainsefailnl irnatinenfasliltyinotecncusirtryeodcbcuetrwreedebne1tw95e5enan1d95250a0n0,dd2e0s0p0i,tedeasnpeitte daencreetadseecirneatsheeitnottahleatnontaulaalnpnrueaclippirteactiiopnit,ahtiiognh,lihgihgtheldigbhytetdhebyintchreeainscerienasceoninseccountsievceudtirvye ddaryysdaanyds tahneddtehceredaescereinasceoninseccountsievceuwtievtedwaeytsdreacyosrrdeecdoradteAdliaatnAol[i5a0n]o. [50]
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