The EUROSEM Model

The European Soil Erosion Model (EUROSEM) is a dynamic distributed model for simulating erosion, transport and deposition of sediment over the land surface by interrill and rill processes. It is designed as an event-based model for both individual fields and small catchments. Model outputs include total runoff, total soil loss, the storm hydrograph and the storm sediment graph. EUROSEM provides for explicit simulation of interrill and rill flow; the effects of plant cover on rainfall interception, infiltration, rainfall energy and flow velocity; and the effects of rock fragment cover on infiltration, flow velocity and splash erosion. Catchments are represented as a simplified cascading network of elements, which may be either planes (for hillslope segments) or channels. Each plane is considered uniform in its soil, slope, surface microtopography and land cover.