RECONDES

Work plan

The research is divided into six major work packages based on a hierarchy of land / use units within the landscape, integrating from the plot and field scale up to the catchment scale. The work packages are:

• Reforested land
• Rainfed cropland
• Semi-natural and abandoned land
• Hillslopes and gullies
• River valleys
• Catchments

The key which holds this altogether and links all scales is the connectivity of water, sediment and nutrients. The aim is to identify the patterns of connectivity and to examine how vegetation can reduce that connectivity. The greater the connectivity then the greater the amounts and forces of water created, thus the greater the amounts of erosion and the further the water and sediment is transmitted downstream with propagation of deleterious effects.

The basic hypothesis is that vegetation can reduce erosion by increasing infiltration and thus reducing overland flow, increasing resistance and by interrupting or reducing runoff. Thus at the scale of the land unit, the project would identify, for example, how water is accumulating and flowing in reforestation plots, where and how it is eroding the terrace rims and therefore where vegetation needs to be targeted.

It then aims to identify what vegetation could be used, how it affects the processes, the conditions necessary for growth of suitable vegetation, and how those conditions can be met.

The connectivity between different landscape scales and landscape units is related to the response thresholds involved. Response thresholds at various landscape scales are an important input to the model and are to be obtained from the field and the rainfall characteristics in the area.

For each work package, there are common factors to be measured and methods to be employed and which will produce a consistency of output:

• Identification of the locations and conditions of erosion
• Identification of potentially usable plants
• Compilation of existing data and measurement of conditions for germination, growth and survival of shortlisted plant species
• Assessment of the effects of plants on degradation processes and identification of key characteristics, e.g. life-forms, rooting properties, density, patterns
• Measurement of resistance of plants and thresholds for germination, growth and survival
• Identification of where in land unit conditions for growth of plants occur
• Modelling of optimal locations for use of vegetation
• Assessment of effect of vegetation use in socio-economic terms
• Assessment of effects of change in climate and /or land use and land practices
• Recommendations on locations, methods and feasibility of use of vegetation at each scale and in each land unit

There is a general flow of data and results to the next level in the hierarchy of land systems but also feedbacks in terms of the implications for coupling and linkages of systems. In addition, there is a flow of information between packages particularly in relation to methods and in relation to particular types of characteristic and conditions. For example, the themes of effects of roots, and the functioning of terraces cross several packages.