Prof M Kirkby
1st April 2000 – 31st March 2003
The European Commission
Soil erosion poses severe limitations to sustainable agricultural land use, as it reduces on-farm soil productivity and causes the accumulation of sediments and agri-chemicals in waterways. Current models are designed to assess soil erosion at high resolutions, and are not suitable to develop regional soil conservation strategies. A physically based and spatially distributed model will be developed, calibrated and validated to quantify soil erosion in a nested strategy of focusing on environmentally sensitive areas relevant to a European scale. Accurate databases will be complied and upgraded through satellite image processing and computational techniques. The project will concentrate on promoting a robust and flexible model by demonstrating its performance at different resolutions and across agro-ecological zones, and by ensuring its relevance to policy makers through impact assessment and scenario analysis. A strong expert and end-user network will be established across Europe.