Cost-effective targeting of erosion control to protect soil and water values

The New Zealand landscape provides a unique testbed to incorporate process-based erosion and sediment science and modelling. By connecting sediment properties to erosion processes, this project will improve understanding of: spatial and temporal patterns of erosion; sediment quality characterisation; soil erosion and sediment mitigation performance; model refinement and validation from average annual to storm-event scale, sediment generation and in-stream sediment quality; and the economic impacts of erosion-sediment and mitigation costs. This research will enable a quantum leap in the design and implementation of cost-effective, targeted erosion control measures and is crucial for meeting national water quality targets. The project will apply emerging geospatial technologies to characterise sediment sources, fluxes and quality parameters, and develop new models and tools. These models and datasets will quantify the links between erosion sources and sediment quality. This will enable us to determine the performance of erosion control measures, and to develop a multi-scale framework to support national-scale assessment of erosion, sediment redistribution and ecosystem impacts.