Modelling soil erosion hazard by using a fuzzy knowledge-based approach

Land degradation as the result of water erosion represents a serious environmental threat. The erosion processes are complex and depend on many factors, determined in turn by a set of characteristics. Fuzzy knowledge-based exploratory models are designed to investigate the susceptibility to erosion by incorporating expert knowledge, in the sense that information on soil properties and/or landscape elements assumed to control accelerated soil erosion are incorporated into the modelling process. Fuzzy boundaries are applied to rank the landscape factors used in modelling the likelihood of an area to be affected by different erosion degrees. Although the model provides qualitative estimations, it is very useful for exploring indicator-cause-process relationships. In addition, it allows the importance of individual landscape elements related to soil erosion to be tested