Rill erosion along the thalweg of a hillslope hollow: A case study from the cotswold hills, Central England

Abstract

AbstractRill erosion is an important erosional form on agricultural soils in England, causing large losses of soil, particularly on cultivated slopes. This paper describes a rill system that developed in a small agricultural catchment in north Oxfordshire during the winter of 1992–93. The rill system comprised two components: a system of ‘feeder rills’ along the valley‐side slopes, which were the result of flow concentration and erosion along wheelings, and a thalweg rill, which formed along a dry valley bottom as a result of surface runoff concentration from the feeder rills. Total volumetric soil loss from the rill system was 32·28 m3, equivalent to 3·01 m3, ha−1 for the rill catchment area, or 3·91 t ha−1. Mean discharge for the thalweg rill and feeder rills, calculated during a storm event, was 31·101s−1 and 1·171s−1, respectively. All flows were fully turbulent and supercritical. We emphasize the need for a spatially distributed approach to the study of runoff and erosion at the catchment scale.