Experimental research and monitoring of rainfall-runoff and erosion processes on agricultural soils

Research team members at the departement:

• doc. Ing. Petr Kavka, Ph.D.
• Ing. Jan Devátý, Ph.D.
• prof. Dr. Ing. Tomáš Dostál
• doc. Ing. Josef Krása, Ph.D.
• Ing. Tomáš Laburda, Ph.D.
• Ing. Martin Neumann, Ph.D.
• Ing. Pavla Schwarzová, Ph.D.
• Ing. Luděk Strouhal, Ph.D.
• doc. Ing. David Zumr, Ph.D.
• Ing. Jakub Jeřábek, Ph.D.
• Ing. Adam Tejkl
• Ing. Jan-František Kubát
• Ing. Michal Vrána
• MSc. Raquel Nogueira Rizzotto Falcão
• MSc. Saunak Sinha Ray
• Ing. Adam Babuljak

Project Description:

The proposed project is focused on experimental research of rainfall-runoff and erosion processes in agricultural landscapes. The project follows the previous project SGS20/156/OHK1/3T/11, during which two dissertations were defended and ten articles were published in impact journals. At the same time, two new rainfall simulator devices have been constructed in conjunction with the project, allowing existing research to be extended with new research opportunities. The experimental catchments have been equipped with new sensors for detailed study of rainfall-runoff and soil properties. The project will include experimental measurement, monitoring and modelling of hydrological, erosion and transport processes. For this project, the experimental base of The Department of Landscape Water Conservation will be used. Specifically, the catchment areas of the Bykovicke and Nucice, where monitoring of crucial variables has been carried out for many years, these measurements need to be maintained and the measurement base is being expanded at the same time. Furthermore, research is being carried out in laboratory conditions at the faculty building. The project will be carried out in two complementary activities.

1. Experimental catchment areas

The activity includes long-term monitoring in the experimental catchments of the Bykovice and Nucice. Monitoring of rainfall-runoff and erosion variables will be carried out in the catchments. These include measurements of rainfall, stream flow, temperature, soil moisture, soil surface conditions hydrological response of the catchment and turbidity. For monitoring erosion events, remote sensing methods will be used. Specifically, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with various sensors such as RGB cameras, multispectral cameras, thermal cameras and laser scanners (LIDAR) will be used. These valuable data will complement the long-maintained database and the data will be used to calibrate and validate mathematical models. The purpose is to determine the correlation of erosion events on precipitation-runoff processes using ground-based data.

2. Simulation of rainfall-runoff and erosion processes

The activity includes especially experimental measurements with rainfall simulators and Mini-JET device. The laboratory rainfall simulator is used for long-term testing of soil sets in terms of rainfall-runoff and erosion processes with the purpose of extending the already existing data set with new soil types or replication of existing soils on fallow plots. With the mobile rainfall simulators, experimental campaigns will be carried out to extend the datasets to cover additional crops, different slopes, soil conservation agronomic practices as well as further replication of existing data. Recalibration and validation of a new large mobile rainfall simulator will also take place for possible implementation in routine measurements.  Measured data from the Mini-JET will be used to evaluate changes in soil erodibility over the year.