CliFEM – Climate Forcing and Erosion Modelling in the Sele River Basin (Southern Italy)

Abstract. This study presents a revised and scale-adapted Foster-Meyer-Onstad model (Foster et al., 1977) for the transport of soil erosion sediments under scarce input data, with the acronym CliFEM (Climate Forcing and Erosion Modelling). This new idea was addressed to develop a monthly time scale invariant Net Erosion model (NER), with the aim to consider the different erosion processes operating at different time scales in the Sele River Basin (South Italy), during 1973–2007 period. The sediment delivery ratio approach was applied to obtain an indirect estimate of the gross erosion too. The examined period was affected by a changeable weather regime, where extreme events may have contributed to exacerbate soil losses, although only the 19% of eroded sediment was delivered at outlet of the basin. The long-term average soil erosion was very high (73 Mg ha⁻¹ per year ± 58 Mg ha⁻¹). The estimate of monthly erosion showed catastrophic soil losses during the soil tillage season (August–October), with consequent land degradation of the hilly areas of the Sele River Basin.