Effects of land use and management on runoff generation and concentration in small agricultral watersheds

Project Staff:

Prof. Dr. Markus Disse (Universität der Bundeswehr München)

Dr. Peter Fiener (Universität zu Köln)

Prof. Dr. Karl Auerswald (Technische Universität München) 

Project summary:

The project is a cooperation between the Universität der Bundeswehr in Munich, the Technischen Universität München and the Universität zu Köln.The aim of the project is to analyse and model effects of agricultural land management on runoff generation and concentration in small, extensively monitored watersheds (size max. 6.3 km²). Data sets from conventional as well as integrated (soil conservation applied) and ecological land management are used.

The main focus is to quantify the hydrological effects of different land management and local measures to reduce runoff. Due to the high spatial and temporal resolution of the data the modelling of single processes (e.g. surface sealing) can be verified, calibrated and validated due to this process and its interaction with others.
After identifying dominant mechanisms and processes the potential effects of water-conservation techniques will be modelled for different rain recurrence periods. Hence, the potential and the limitation of local flood control measures will be analysed and a discussed. 

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)