Impacts of vineyard area dynamics on soil erosion in a Mediterranean catchment (1950-2011)

Description

The Mediterranean basin has undergone widespread land cover change. Urbanization of coastal areas, land abandonment of steeper slopes, and agricultural intensification in alluvial plains are recurrent themes. The objective of this study was to examine how vineyard land cover changes have affected agricultural soil erosion in a 50 year period (1950-2011). The study area covers a 235 km 2 catchment located near the Gulf of St Tropez. Aerial photographs were used to map land cover in 1950, 1982, 2003 and 2011, and the RUSLE soil erosion model was run to estimate soil erosion. Between 1950 and 2011, vineyard went from about 2,426 ha to 1,561 ha. Mean soil erosion increased as vineyard slopes became steeper

Abstract

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