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, 342-350.
Effects of conservation tillage on storm flow: a model-based assessment
for a mesoscale watershed in Germany
INGO HAAG, ANNETTE LUCE & KAI
GERLINGER
Dr.-Ing. Karl Ludwig, Consulting
Engineers, Herrenstr. 14,
D-76133 Karlsruhe, Germany
ingo.haag@ludwig-wawi.de
Abstract The
hydrological model LARSIM was used to assess the flood mitigating effect of
conservation tillage within the 195-km2 loess covered watershed of
the River Glems, Germany. In order to adequately account for the effect of
conservation tillage on the infiltration process and the formation of
infiltration-excess overland flow, LARSIM was extended by an infiltration
module. The new module was parameterized with the results of small-scale field
studies, enabling one to upscale these results to the watershed scale.
Modelling scenarios for River Glems show that only the peak discharges of
floods caused by convective rain events of high intensity are mitigated by
introducing conservation tillage. Since most floods in the mesoscale watershed
are caused by advective precipitation events of moderate intensity, the overall
effect of conservation tillage on peak discharges of given return periods is
negligible.
Key words
flood
mitigation; hydrological model; infiltration-excess; land-use scenario; LARSIM;
loess soil; River Glems; runoff generation; soil management practice