Effects of tillage on runoff and erosion patterns

Historically, research on water runoff and soil erosion has been conducted mainly at the plot scale, with slope gradient being one of the dominant controlling factors. However, tillage-induced roughness can also significantly impact runoff and erosion, and therefore runoff patterns on a field scale can be very different from the runoff pattern that would be predicted from topography alone. A model and methodology were developed to account for oriented tillage effects on runoff patterns. Results suggests that the prediction of soil erosion and deposition within a field, as well as total soil loss from a field, can be significantly improved by combining the effects of tillage-induced runoff patterns with detailed topographic data.