High-resolution topographic surveys as a quantitative method for a better understanding of soil piping processes in badlands landscapes: Valpalmas (NE Spain)

Abstract

Soil piping is a land degradation process relatively common in semiarid environments which is related to rilling and gullying in badland areas. This process is a result from a complex combination of different factors as lithology (e.g., swelling clays), topography (e.g., hydraulic gradient) and climate (e.g., strong seasonal contrasts). Better understanding of piping erosion is needed since it can negatively impact land productivity and agricultural sustainability and may affect soil nutrients load and carbon cycles. Piping studies have been frequently focused on the qualitative and quantitative implications of chemical and physicochemical factors affecting the initiation of piping processes together with a qualitative analysis of the hydrological and geomorphological related processes. However, less attention has been given to the study of these processes from a quantitative point of view. High-resolution topography surveying has improved the spatial and temporal scales at which is possible to investigate the landscape through the analysis of landform attributes and the computation of topographic changes. Within this background, the aim of this work is to infer in the key geomorphic piping processes in terms of contributions to shaping the landscape by the application of multi-temporal topographic surveys through SfM-photogrammetry and TLS. To this end we analyse a 7-year dataset of seasonal and annual high-resolution topographic surveys of a badlands landscape dominated by soil piping processes in Valpalmas (NE Spain). We examine the magnitude and distribution of geomorphic processes at multiple temporal scales and its relation with landform morphometric attributes and meteorological variables. This research project was supported by the MANMOUNT (PID2019-105983RB-100/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033) project funded by the MICINN-FEDER, the PRX21/00375 project funded by the Ministry of Universities of Spain from the “Salvador de Madariaga” programme, the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (project EQC2018-004169-P) and by a grant from the Priority Research Area “Anthropocene” under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University. Manel Llena has a “Juan de la Cierva Formación” postdoctoral contract (FJC2020-043890-I/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.