Vegetation influence on runoff and sediment yield in the Andes region: observation and modelling

The Precordillera of the Andes Mountains (Mendoza, Argentina) is prone to severe flash floods, caused by heavy rainfall events of short duration and high intensities. Two catchments were instrumented in order to study the rainfall-runoff process and soil management impact on runoff and/or sediment yield. In the first catchment (Divisadero Largo, DL, 5.47 km2), characterized by a large heterogeneity of surface geology, a data set of about 50 rainfall-runoff events covering the 1983-1994 period was available. Vegetation cover changed significantly after the catchment was enclosed in 1989-1990. This change was successfully mapped using Landsat TM image analysis. The second catchment (Cuenca Aluvional Piloto, CAP, 35 ha), the soil of which was homogeneous, was instrumented in 1992 for total runoff and sediment yield measurements. Three small plots of 3 x 10 m2 (bare soil, 42 and 60% vegetation cover) and three sub catchments (2-4.5 ha) were delimited with different average vegetation cover. Data analysis showed the difficulty in relating runoff volume and sediment yield to simple descriptors of the catchments such as the average slope and/or the average vegetation cover. The DL and CAP catchments were modelled using the Areal Non Point Source Watershed Environment Response Simulation (ANSWERS) model with contrasting results. Good agreement between model and observation could be achieved after calibration on the 3 x 10 m2 plots, but the model failed to correctly reproduce runoff on the three 2-4.5 ha CAP sub-catchments using the values calibrated on the small plots. Better results were obtained on the larger and heterogeneous DL basin, where surface geology variations and rainfall variability seemed to be the most influential factors. In this case, no sensitivity to vegetation coverage changes, induced when enclosing the catchment, was found. On the other hand, the model proved sensitive to differences in vegetation cover at smaller scales when the geology was homogeneous.