TWG_EROSION

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Technical Working Groups: Erosion

Technical working group - Erosion
 

 

52
Members

MAIN OBJECTIVES

Develop an object oriented (bottom-up) approach for estimating soil erosion and erosion-related soil health indicators at farm scale. Integrate soil erosion with emerging issues such as soil contamination, carbon loss and food security. Improve large-scale assessments. Create different sub-groups based on research question or policy request.

 

Available for download are a selection of our last 4 EUSO annual reports.

2024 (p.51),  2023 (p.38),  2022 (p.27),  2021 (p.33)

 


 

 ACTIVITIES
25 Jun --
2025  

 

1 day Webinar on Gully Erosion: 

The EUSO Technical Working Group on Soil Erosion organised a one-day webinar on gully erosion. This webinar highlighted ongoing research on gully erosion at local, European, and global scales. Joined by experts who gave the latest insights into gully erosion processes, monitoring, and modeling.

2024 --

 

Activity report
2023 --Activity report
20-22 Jun --
2022  		Workshop on soil erosion for the Europe - Emerging challenges: 3-day workshop in emerging challenges of soil erosion a) large scale modelling b) land management at parcel level c) climate change and future losses d) integration with nutrient losses e) erosion impact on carbon balance f) sediments distribution g) landslides h) climate change.
Link to the meeting agenda, presentations and abstracts
Mar 2022 --Sediments group: Develop the sediments database
7 Dec --
2021		 TWG meeting:

Delineated draft approach to improve soil erosion estimations at EU level considering:

  • Sediment data available at catchment scale;
  • Land management target scale (parcel/field);
  • Integration of soil erosion in multidisciplinary models addressing contamination, carbon loss, food security;

Presentations during the kick-off meeting:

20 Oct  --
2021  

1st EUSO Stakeholder forum: 
Minutes of the 1st EUSO Stakeholder forum (20 Oct. 2021). The presentations of the Stakeholder forum can be found under parallel Session 2b: Soil erosion in relation to land degradation, climate change & food security

  
  
 

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS - outputs of the Working Group

  • EUropean SEDiments collaboration (EUSEDcollab) database: The EUropean SEDiments collaboration (EUSEDcollab) database contains a compilation of data contributions from monitored catchments spanning across multiple European institutions. The focus of the database is small to medium catchments, containing water discharge and sediment delivery time series measurements. These data can support research applications in soil erosion, sediment delivery and runoff studies. The compiled measurements allow insights into the processes governing soil erosion and sediment delivery across a spectrum of spatial and temporal scales. The data is aimed at multiple end-user applications, such as providing baseline information for further analytical studies and model application/development, allowing comparison with real measurements. As a user-orientated European Union Soil Observatory (EUSO) initiative, the contributed data is harmonised with a common metadata and time series structure to allow efficient reuse (for an example see: https://github.com/ matfran/EUSEDcollab.git). This database aims to provide the research community with a starting point for new research opportunities in a range of sediment-related research avenues.
  • Off-site Costs of removing sediments (as described in the publication) - contributing to the Impact Assessment of the Soil monitoring Law.
  • Multiple concurrent soil erosion processes: This dataset A first-ever assessment at European scale combines the threat of water, wind, tillage and harvesting to reveal the cumulative impact on arable land. We present the datasets for each of the erosion process (water, wind, tillage, harvesting root crops) and their cumulative effect at 100m resolution for EU arable lands (110 Million ha). In addition, we make available the Tillage Erosion assessment and the spatial distribution of erosion by harvesting root crops.
  • Global Applications of Soil Erosion Modelling Tracker (GASEMT): This GASEMT database provides comprehensive insights into the state-of-the-art of soil- erosionmodels and model applications worldwide. This database intends to support the upcoming country-based United Nations global soil-erosion assessment in addition to helping to inform soil erosion research priorities by building a foundation for future targeted, in-depth analyses. GASEMT is an open-source database available to the entire user-community to develop research, rectify errors, and make future expansions.
 
  • Panagos, P., Matthews, F., Patault, E., De Michele, C., Quaranta, E., Bezak, N., Kaffas, K., Patro, E.R., Auel, C., Schleiss, A.J. and Fendrich, A., 2024. Understanding the cost of soil erosion: An assessment of the sediment removal costs from the reservoirs of the European Union. Journal of Cleaner Production, 434: 140183.
  • Matthews F., Verstraeten G., Borrelli P., Vanmaercke M., Poesen J., Steegen A., Degré A., Rodríguez B.C., Bielders C., Franke C., Alary C., Zumr D., Patault E., Nadal-Romero E., Smolska E., Licciardello F., Swerts G., Thodsen H., Casalí J., Eslava J., Richet J.-B., Ouvry J.-F., Farguell J., Święchowicz J., Nunes J.P., Pak L.T., Liakos L., Campo-Bescós M.A., Żelazny M., Delaporte M., Pineux N., Henin N., Bezak N., Lana-Renault N., Tzoraki O., Giménez R., Li T., Zuazo V.H.D., Bagarello V., Pampalone V., Ferro V., Úbeda X., Panagos P.  2023. EUSEDcollab: a network of data from European catchments to monitor net soil erosion by water. Sci Data 10: 515. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02393-8
  • Borrelli, P., Panagos, P., Alewell, C., Ballabio, C., de Oliveira Fagundes, H., Haregeweyn, N., Lugato, E., Maerker, M., Poesen, J., Vanmaercke, M. and Robinson, D.A., 2023. Policy implications of multiple concurrent soil erosion processes in European farmland. Nature Sustainability 6(1): 103-112. DOI: 10.1038/s41893-022-00988-4.
  • Borrelli, P., Alewell, C., Alvarez, P., Anache, j.A.A., Baartman, J., Ballabio, C., Biddoccu, M., Cerdà, A., Chalise, D., Chen, S., Chen, W., De Girolamo, A.M., Gessesse, G.D., Deumlich, D., Diodato, N., Efthimiou, N., Erpul, G., Fiener, P., Freppaz, M., Gentile, F., Gericke, A., Haregeweyn, N., Hu, B., Jeanneau, A., Kaffas, K., Kiani-Harchegani, M., Lizaga Villuendas, I., Li, C., Lombardo, L., López-Vicente, M., Lucas-Borja, M.E., Matthews, F., Märker, M., Miao, C., Mikoš, M., Modugno, S., Möller, M., Naipal, V., Nearing, M., Owusu, S., Panday, D., Patault, E., Patriche, C.V., Poggio R., Portes, Quijano, L., Rahdari, M.R., Renima, M., Ricci, G.F., Rodrigo-Comino, J., Saia, S., Samani, A.N., Schillaci, C., Syrris, V., Kim, H.S., Spinola, D.N., Oliveira, P.T.S., Teng, H., Thapa, R., Vantas, K., Vieira, D., Yang, J.E, Yin, S., Zema, D.A., Zhao, G., Panagos, P. 2021. Soil erosion modelling: A global review and statistical analysis. Science of The Total Environment 780: 146494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146494
  • Bezak, N., Mikoš, M., Borrelli, P., Alewell, C., Alvarez, P., Anache, j.A.A., Baartman, J., Ballabio, C., Biddoccu, M., Cerdà, A., Chalise, D., Chen, S., Chen, W., De Girolamo, A.M., Gessesse, G.D., Deumlich, D., Diodato, N., Efthimiou, N., Erpul, G., Fiener, P., Freppaz, M., Gentile, F., Gericke, A., Haregeweyn, N., Hu, B., Jeanneau, A., Kaffas, K., Kiani-Harchegani, M., Lizaga Villuendas, I., Li, C., Lombardo, L., López-Vicente, M., Lucas-Borja, M.E., Märker, M., Miao, C., Modugno, S., Möller, M., Naipal, V., Nearing, M., Owusu, S., Panday, D., Patault, E., Patriche, C.V., Poggio R., Portes, Quijano, L., Rahdari, M.R., Renima, M., Ricci, G.F., Rodrigo-Comino, J., Saia, S., Samani, A.N.,  Schillaci, C., Syrris, V., Kim, H.S., Spinola, D.N., Oliveira, P.T.S., Teng, H., Thapa, R., Vantas, K., Vieira, D., Yang, J.E, Yin, S., Zema, D.A., Zhao, G., Panagos, P., 2021. Soil Erosion Modelling: A Bibliometric Analysis.  Environmental Research, 197: 11187
 CONTACTS:
Panos Panagos, EUSO - Panos.PANAGOS@ec.europa.eu
Petra Deproost, Government of Flanders, Belgium - petra.deproost@vlaanderen.be
Pasquale Borrelli, University of Rome, Italy - pasquale.borrelli@uniroma3.it
Diana Vieira, EUSO - Diana.SIMOES-VIEIRA@ec.europa.eu
 BACK TO TECHNICAL WORKING GROUPS

 

The EUSO Technical Working Group on Soil Erosion organised a one-day webinar on gully erosion. This webinar highlighted ongoing research on gully erosion at local, European, and global scales. Joined by experts who gave the latest insights into gully erosion processes, monitoring, and modeling