Abstract
We use the hybrid modeling laboratory of the Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics (MedLanD) Project to simulate barranco incision in eastern Spain under different scenarios of natural and human environmental change. We carry out a series of modeling experiments set in the Rio Penaguila valley of northern Alicante Province. The MedLanD Modeling Laboratory (MML) is able to realistically simulate gullying and incision in a multi-dimensional, spatially explicit virtual landscape. We first compare erosion modeled in wooded and denuded landscapes in the absence of human land-use. We then introduce simulated small-holder (e.g., prehistoric Neolithic) farmer/herders in six experiments, by varying community size (small, medium, large) and land management strategy (satisficing and maximizing). We compare the amount and location of erosion under natural and anthropogenic conditions. Natural (e.g., climatically induced) land-cover change produces a distinctly different signature of landscape evolution than does land-cover change produced by agropastoral land-use. Human land-use induces increased coupling between hillslopes and channels, resulting in increased downstream incision.
Highlights
Characteristic features of many Mediterranean landscapes are deeply incised, intermittent watercourses, termed barrancos in Spanish
We describe the results of a series of modeling experiments, using a digital laboratory developed in the Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics (MedLanD) project, designed to explore the long-term consequences of small-holder agropastoral land-use for the evolution of barrancos in Mediterranean
An oblique detailed view of the final topography for one run of one experiment, colored by the 300-year sum-total erosion/deposition for each map pixel, shows that the surface process model is capable of creating significant erosional dynamics in stream channels (Figure 6)
Summary
Characteristic features of many Mediterranean landscapes are deeply incised, intermittent watercourses, termed barrancos in Spanish. The MedLanD Modeling Laboratory (MML) is an open-source, integrated modeling environment that has the ability to couple spatially explicit (cellular automata) models of landscape evolution, agent-based and GIS-based models of human land-use, and regression or cellular models of vegetation and climate change to study the long-term dynamics of coupled human and natural landscapes [19,21,22,23,24,25,26] In these experiments, we model the effects of increasing population, reducing fallowing intervals, and resource management strategies on barranco incision (Table 1). The valley is dissected by deeply entrenched barrancos containing incised sections that appear to postdate early Neolithic occupation of the valley
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