Soil and climate change: New aspects in the assessment of the risk of erosion caused by water as a consequence of climate change

In the changing climatic conditions, soil erosion plays a key role in preventive soil protection. Up to now, the regional variations in rainfall have been represented by regression equations in which the height of the summer precipitation determines the rain erosion. These approaches are insufficient to take account of the dynamics in changing the characteristics of heavy rain, as they react to changes in precipitation characteristics only with a long time lag. Therefore, the German Meteorological Service has developed a method based on rain radar measurements. The procedure is briefly presented and the impact on erosion is explained. Corresponding rain-erosivity maps are regularly provided by the German Meteorological Service. updated on-line. With corresponding ground and relief maps, the North Rhine-Westphalia Geological Service produces erosion risk maps which support advice to agriculture. The results are also used by policy-makers to target relevant funding programmes.