Soil Erosion Control for Catchment Management

On successful completion of this short course you will:

• Understand the processes of soil erosion, and of sediment transport and deposition
• Appreciate the environmental impacts of soil erosion, and the need for erosion control and soil conservation
• Evaluate erosion risk in a catchment and identify potential sources and sinks of sediment
• Make appropriate decisions on erosion control, based on a fundamental understanding of the processes
• Select appropriate input parameter values to apply erosion models to predict current erosion status and evaluate different conservation measures
• Design an erosion control strategy for an individual farm, taking account of its location within a catchment and socio-economic conditions
• Gain experience of managing a soil conservation project, set by an external client, which requires, using problem solving techniques, writing a consultancy-style report and meeting deadlines set.

• Runoff and sediment production in drainage basins; erosion processes - mechanics of raindrop splash, overland flow, rill flow, gully erosion; sediment delivery to water bodies; strategies for erosion control
• Rainfall erosivity
• Soil erodibility
• Soil loss prediction: USLE; Modified MMF; SERAM-DST
• Land use planning
• Soil conservation planning integrating technical and consultation-based multi-stakeholder approaches
• Soil erosion control by engineering structures (terraces and waterways), agronomic methods on arable and grassland, soil management, including conservation tillage techniques; agroforestry; gully erosion control.