Quantifying decreased hillslope erosion rates from grazing management of pastoral lands (#39)
Robin Ellis
1
,
Nick Marsh
1
,
David Waters
1
- Truii, West End, QUEENSLAND, Australia
- Grazing management programs typically encourage herd management to reduce hillslope erosion rates through increased groundcover. Other land restoration activities applied to pastoral lands could also provide similar outcomes. To prioritise, plan and financially support good land stewardship through grazing management programs, it is important to quantify the relative hillslope erosion reduction of these actions reliably and consistently.
- Using publicly available data we have developed a Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation based approach for quantifying the reduction in hillslope erosion from grazing land management and land restoration projects. These erosion reduction predictions can in turn be used to quantify soil savings and water quality benefits. The approach uses the Dynamic Reference Cover Method to guide a groundcover frequency distribution (GFD) analysis of pastoral lands representing classes of grazing management practice. The method then uses the GFDs to provide estimated groundcover improvement for alternative grazing and land restoration activities, allowing quantification of the change in hillslope erosion rate.
- We have learned that there is a wealth of data available to facilitate the estimation of hillslope erosion rates (and potential erosion reductions) at a scale that empowers land managers, but access to this capability has been clouded by significant data discovery and analysis requirements.
- Developing this RUSLE modelling framework provides land managers the ability to reliably estimate the water quality improvements that improved grazing land management can achieve. Combined with associated co-benefit estimation, land managers can take their rightful place in the increasing discussions around Natural Capital Accounting in Australia.
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