Impact of forest regeneration on runoff and sediment yield

Supervisor : Prof. J.B. Thornes and Dr. Mark Mulligan, Department of Geography, King's College London

A great deal of work has been done on the impact of clearance on water and sediment yield. A new model has been developed for evaluating the impact of land abandonmnet after clearance on runoff and sediment yield for semi-arid environments (Obando, 1995, Obando and Thornes, in press). The model will be extended to apply to tropical forest terrains, especially those with bi-phasic soils, to examine the fate of fertilisers and pollutants on regenerating forest land. This work will be carried out within the context of the HERB GISmodel.

Obando,J. (1995) Modelling vegetation-erosion competition on abandoned land under fluctuating rainfall regimes. in Fantechi,R., Peter,D.,Balabanis,P. and Rubio,J.L. (1995,eds.) Desertification in a European Context : physical and socio economic aspects. CEC Press.

Obando,J. and Thornes,J.B. (1995) Ecology, demography and hydrology in modelling erosion from abandoned hill slopes. Submitted to Advances in Hillslope Hydrology