Abstract
Soil erosion in England and Wales was not considered to be an environmental problem until the 1970s. Since then, a significant amount of research has been conducted at a wide range of locations in England and Wales to quantify erosion or to establish the risk of erosion occurring in the future. Though on a global scale, many of these studies underline the fact that soil erosion rates may not be high, the consensus in the literature is that soil erosion in England and Wales often occurs at an acclerated rate and can be detrimental both to the quality of the soil (on-site impacts) and the quality of receiving surface waters (off-site impacts). Numerous different techniques have been used to assess soil erosion in England and Wales. These include: direct measurements of erosion features through surveying, remote sensing and aerial photography of the extent of erosion, monitoring of erosion 'plots' and catchments to observe erosion, tracing soil erosion using geochemical and radionuclide analysis and modelling of erosion using a suite of different software. Thus, the evidence base for erosion is extensive, but is made up of many lines of evidence, which are not always in agreement. Indeed, different techniques to understand erosion are appropriate in different environments. The large-scale erosion of peaty uplands, for example, has been studied via repeat ground surveys and aerial photography, whereas the erosion from intensively-managed grasslands has best been captured via detailed monitoring studies on small catchment areas. What is now required is a synthesis of all the information describing soil erosion in England and Wales and a framework that will allow us to improve our understanding of erosion both in terms of future predictions but also in terms of understanding whether mitigation efforts have been successful. This project proposes to address two main objectives to improve understanding of soil erosion in England and Wales and to develop a way forward to monitor soil erosion. Objective one will be to deliver an in-depth literature review, written by world-leading experts in the field of soil erosion, who have already contributed dozens of research papers describing soil erosion in England and Wales to the research literature. This work wil lprovide a fundamental basis upon which we will build a consensus as to how we should monitor soil erosion in the future. Objective two will bring together a wide spectrum of erosion experts, including scientists as well as stakeholders to refine our understanding of previous erosion research and suggest a feasible approach that will allow us to conduct a cost-effective, national-scale monitoring programme of erosion in the future.
United Kingdom