The Physics of Wind Erosion

Fri., Oct. 11, 2013 3:30 p.m. - Fri., Oct. 11, 2013 4:30 p.m.

Location: CL 305

Climate change will increase the risk and severity of wind erosion on the Canadian prairies due to more frequent droughts, a shorter winter season, and a greater number of severe storms. Physicists and other scientists have modelled wind erosion processes, which are very complex, since the 1930s. Erosion models must deal with three different soil loss mechanisms as well soil particles that are not uniform in size. Wind erosion models based on the equations of fluid dynamics often have a limited ability to predict soil loss in field situations. I will discuss how to construct practical models to estimate soil loss due to wind erosion, the physical and social factors that lead to data capture inaccuracies, and methods to increase the accuracy of acquired data that is used to create wind erosion models.

Speaker: Evan Morris - EcoTech Research