Sediment Transfer through the Fluvial System (Proceedings of a symposium held in Moscow, August 2004). IAHS Publ. 288, 2004, 339–344

Abstract In an attempt to get detailed information about amounts and spatial extents of soil erosion we conducted a study on sediment and water loads for the Ybbs River basin (1100 km²), located in the pre-Alpine area of lower Austria. As the spatial validation of soil erosion and sediment yield at the mesoscale is almost impossible, we tried to gain knowledge about probable risk areas by application of completely different erosion models (MUSLE and MMF). We tried to evaluate whether they lead to a different pattern of risk areas and if they are comparable in terms of absolute values of soil loss. Measured flows were used to calibrate the two different erosion models in four sub-basins with markedly different land use. Differences in model results could be attributed to different methods of spatial aggregation. Both models overestimated sediment delivery to the river. Unrealistic parameter values for calculating transport capacity had to be used for calibration of sediment yields.

Key words drainage basin; mesoscale; MMF; soil erosion model; SWAT