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Climate Change and the Physical Environment
Online Web Tool for Soil Erosion Prediction
The Water Erosion Prediction Project
(WEPP),
in the Soil and Water Engineering
group at the
Moscow Forest Sciences Laboratory,
uses a number of specialized tools for roads, managed forests,
and forests following wildfire to predict soil erosion.
The daily climate parameter inputs into these predictive tools can be
readily altered to reflect warmer or colder, and wetter or drier climates, by month. Our erosion model
is physically-based. WEPP includes vegetation growth
algorithms which are dependent on soil water availability and daily temperatures. Our predictive tools
can thus show the interactions among climate, plant growth, and erosion. This means a drier and/or hotter
climate may result in less vegetation, leading to either increased erosion because of reduced ground cover,
or reduced erosion because of reduced precipitation. Because WEPP is driven by both temperature and
precipitation, it can show the effects of changing climate on snow accumulation, melt, and runoff.
Contact Bill Elliott
for additional information.
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