Modelización en Geografía Física.-Modelling daily sediment yield from a meso-scale catchment, a case study in SW Poland.

Abstract

ABSTRACT For management purposes it is important to be able to assess the sediment yield of a catchment. However, at this moment models designed for estimating sediment yield are only capable to give either very detailed storm-based information or yearly averages. The storm-based models require input data that are not available for most catchments. However, models that estimate yearly averages, ignore a lot of other detailed information, like daily discharge and precipitation data. There are currently no models available that model sediment yield on the temporal scale of one day and the spatial scale of a meso-scale catchment, without making use of very detailed input data. To fill this scientific and management gap, landscape evolution model LAPSUS has been adapted to model sediment yield on a daily basis. This model has the water balance as a base. To allow calibration with the discharge at the outlet, a subsurface flow module has been added to the model. Our version of the model only requires a DEM (10 to 30 m pixel size), a soil map, a land use map, daily discharge and precipitation data and a general idea of the soil depths in the catchment. With this information the model can be calibrated for the water flow part which will give a good indication of the possibilities for sediment transport. This new version of LAPSUS was tested on a catchment in SW Poland, the Nysa Szalona.