Assessing the combined hazards of drought, soil erosion and local flooding on agricultural land: a Czech case study

0464877 - ÚVGZ 2017 RIV DE eng J - Journal Article
Trnka, Miroslav - Semerádová, Daniela - Novotný, I. - Dumbrovský, M. - Drbal, K. - Pavlík, F. - Vopravil, J. - Štěpánková, P. - Vizina, A. - Balek, Jan - Hlavinka, Petr - Bartošová, Lenka - Žalud, Zdeněk
Assessing the combined hazards of drought, soil erosion and local flooding on agricultural land: a Czech case study.
Climate Research. Roč. 70, oct (2016), s. 231-249. ISSN 0936-577X. E-ISSN 1616-1572
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT(CZ) LO1415; GA MZe(CZ) QJ1610072
Grant - others:EHP(CZ) EHP-CZ02-OV-1-014-2014
Program: CZ02
Institutional support: RVO:67179843
Keywords : Soil moisture * Sheet erosion * Ephemeral gully erosion * Fast-drying soil * Critical point * Vulnerability * Climate change
Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour
Impact factor: 1.578, year: 2016

Present-day agriculture faces multiple challenges, including ongoing climate change
that is at many locations combined with soil degradation. The deterioration of soil properties
through unsustainable agricultural practices and changing climate could lead to a fall in productivity
beyond the point of no return with devastating effects on ecosystem services in large areas.
Identifying areas with the highest hazard levels should therefore be a top priority. The key hazards
for agricultural land in the Czech Republic considered in this study include the occurrence of
water stress in the topsoil layer during both the first and second half of the growing season, the
proportion of fast-drying soils, the risk of sheet and ephemeral gully erosion and the risk of local
floods originating primarily from agricultural land. The results clearly marked regions where primary
attention should be given to reduce the level of the hazards and/or to increase cropping
capacity. These regions were found to be concentrated in the southeastern and northwestern lowland
areas. Typical areas with the highest hazard levels were identified: regions with low precipitation
and a high proportion of soils with a degraded or naturally occurring low water-holding
capacity, and those with steeper than average slopes and terrain configurations in relatively large
catchment areas that have urbanized countryside landscapes located at their lower elevations.
Despite some limitations, the methods presented in this paper can be applied generally as the first
step in developing strategies for efficient reduction of hazard levels.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0263629