Section

Physical geography and biogeography, soil geography and landscape geochemistry

Title

GULLY EROSION IMPACTS ON THE TOPOGRAPHY CHANGES

Сontributors

I. I. Nikolskaya, Senior Research Scientist, Ph. D. (Geography), Lomonosov Moscow State University,

S.        D. Prokhorova, Junior Research Scientist, Ph. D. (Geography), Lomonosov Moscow State University. makkaveev @yandex.ru

Abstract

The article presents a study of various drivers of the gully erosion impact on the surface topography changes based on the global review done in Makkaveev Labora-tory of Soil Erosion and Fluvial Processes. The assessment of drainage network expansion at the South of non-Chernozem part of Russia is given based on gullies number and length increase. The intensity sediment de-livery from gullies within the European part of Russia and their role in the regional sediment budget is calculated. The gullies formation under favorable conditions leads to the almost complete degradation of catchment areas forming so-called “badland”. The study is further focused on the assessment of the gully erosion impact on channel morphology (riffles, alluvial fans, etc.). The regional mapping techniques enable to proceed with the approach to classify the distribution of different types of the drainage network (e.g. the gully, the dry valley, the river). The potential drainage density of the European part of Russia is calculated.

Keywords

gully erosion, drainage density, drainage network structure, potential.

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