Hydrological thresholds of soil surface properties identified using conditional inference tree analysis

Auteur(s) et Affiliation(s)



Description :
The study sites were in the Cobar Pediplain region of semi-arid New South Wales, Australia. In order to quantify ground cover and soil related thresholds for runoff and sediment production, the AA. used a data mining technique known as conditional inference tree analysis to determine statistically significant values of a range of measured variables that predicted average runoff, peak runoff, sediment concentration and sediment production at the microscale. The analysis presented here identified the critical role of soil surface roughness, particularly where total ground cover is sparse. The analysis also provided evidence that a two-phase mosaic of patches and inter-patches identified via rapid visual assessment could be further delineated into distinct groups of hydrological response, or a multi-phase rather than a two-phase system. The approach used here may aid in assessing scale-dependent responses and address data non-linearity in studies of semi-arid hydrology.


Type de document :
Article de périodique

Source :
Earth surface processes and landforms, issn : 0197-9337, 2012, vol. 37, n°. 6, p. 620-632, nombre de pages : 13, Références bibliographiques : 58 ref.

Date :
2012

Editeur :
Pays édition : Royaume-Uni, Chichester, Wiley