PIAHS Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences PIAHS Proc. IAHS 2199-899X Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/piahs-367-43-2015 Simulation of rainfall effects on sediment transport on steep slopes in an Alpine catchment Kaiser A. 1 Neugirg F. 2 Schindewolf M. 1 Haas F. 2 Schmidt J. 1 Soil and Water Conservation Unit, Technical University Freiberg, 09599 Freiberg, Germany Department of Physical Geography, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 85072 Eichstätt, Germany 03 03 2015 367 43 50 Copyright: © 2015 A. Kaiser et al. 2015 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://piahs.copernicus.org/articles/367/43/2015/piahs-367-43-2015.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://piahs.copernicus.org/articles/367/43/2015/piahs-367-43-2015.pdf

The Alps represent a young, high mountain range which displays strong geomorphological activity. As the major source area in Central Europe, they deliver large quantities of sediment to the lowlands. However, our knowledge on process differentiation is still not sufficient to distinguish between the summer and winter periods of denudation. To increase our understanding of soil detachment, artificial rainfall experiments were carried out to generate data for the physically-based soil erosion model EROSION 2D/3D. Additionally, state-of-the-art, close-range remote sensing methods were applied to validate the results. The first rainfall simulations showed promising results for predicting denudation during the summer period, thus indicating the applicability of this experimental approach. However, further research is required for seasonal dynamics during other times of the year.