摘要：This paper is focused on the quantification of the effects of cropland abandonment on gully development and denudationrates for a sample hillslope of Central Italy that underwent cropland abandonment, located within the TevereRiver Basin. This goal is pursued by the integration of different erosion monitoring and estimation techniques: the applicationof DGPS surveys let us estimating the erosion rate since agricultural practices were interrupted (30 years ago) and thetraditional erosion monitoring technique with pins was applied during two years in order to validate DGPS survey resultsand comprehend the dynamics of geomorphic processes affecting the considered denudation hot spot. The investigationsproved that cropland abandonment provoked an intensification of erosion rate in the study area, as already observed inother sites of the Mediterranean region. Moreover this work contributes to the comprehension of the applicability of DGPSsurveys to compute erosion rates for fairly large time-spans.
关键词：badlands; soil erosion monitoring; DGPS survey; human impact; central Italy
