Hydrogeomorphic processes affecting dryland gully erosion: Implications for modelling

Abstract

Gullies contribute high sediment loads to receiving waters and significantly degrade landscapes. In drylands, low annual rainfall and resultant poor ground cover, coupled with high-intensity storms and dispersive soils, predispose these landscapes to gully erosion. Land management, such as grazing, exacerbates gully-forming processes by degrading ground cover and compacting soils, thereby increasing and concentrating overland flow. Current surface erosion models do not adequately represent sediment export from gullied terrain due to lack of distributed data and complex hydrogeomorphic processes, such as overland flow concentration, waterfall erosion, soil pipe collapse, and mass wasting. Here, we outline the strengths and weaknesses of past modelling approaches in erodible terrain and focus on how gully erosion processes can be better simulated at appropriate scales using newly available remote-sensing techniques and databases, coupled with improved understanding of relevant hydrogeomorphic processes. We also discuss and present examples of challenges related to assessing land management practices in drylands that affect gully erosion.