Predictions in Ungauged Basins: Promise and Progress (Proceedings of symposium S7 held during the Seventh IAHS Scientific Assembly at Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, April 2005). IAHS Publ. 303, 2006, 305-317.

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Effect of soil shrinkage on runoff generation in micro and mesoscale catchments

FALK LINDENMAIER¹, ERWIN ZEHE², MARTIN HELMS¹, OLEG EVDAKOV¹ & JÜRGEN IHRINGER¹

1 Department of Water and River Basin Management, University of Karlsruhe (TH), Kaiserstrasse 12, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany

lindenmaier@iwk.uka.de

2 Institute of Geoecology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24-25, D-14476 Golm, Germany

Abstract Catchments dominated by clay rich soils might show distinct seasonality over several spatial scales. We present a microscale catchment study in southern Germany which gives an understanding of the hydrological processes dominating clay soil catchments. Shrinkage and swelling of soils lead to a highly nonlinear threshold behaviour of individual events, strongly dependent on the respective soil moisture state. With understanding the microscale catchment processes, we are able to find links to the behaviour of larger clay soil catchments as well. Thus, mesoscale catchment studies in the Kostroma basin, Russia, show a very similar system response and seasonality due to dominant clay rich soils, though the climatic pattern varies with some respect. We think that the impact of clay soils in runoff generation is observable over several hydrological scales, indicating the importance of integration of specific soil properties in mesoscale runoff investigation.

Key words clay soil catchment; process identification; soil shrinkage; tile drains

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