ABSTRACT
The joint analysis of erosive and transport processes on hillslopes and fluvial systems is essential to understand landscape dynamics. The objective of this work was to quantify and model long-term hillslope and fluvial processes in a Mediterranean high mountain area. For this purpose, sedimentation monitoring over a 10-year period of a reservoir (110 hm3) in the Guadalfeo River, southern Spain, was used to calibrate both hydrological and hydraulic models. The hydrological model WiMMed, distributed and physically based, was upgraded to reproduce rill/interrill erosive processes and erosion/deposit balance over decadal scales on sub-hourly time-steps. Effects of the spatial variability of hydro-meteorological agents, topographic gradients and distributed dynamics of snow were also modeled. Both hydrographs and sedimentographs were used to estimate bedload downstream. The long term simulations show a spatial distribution of erosion that differs from parametric models (USLE/RUSLE) and draws attention to the importance of the extreme events under climate change scenarios.
