Wind erosion modelling in a Sahelian environment

With the correct roughness length (Z0), wind erosion prediction system (WEPS) correctly predicted friction velocity and initiation and cessation of mass transport. Furthermore, the model gave a reasonable prediction of the spatial distribution of mass transport at the research sites. It was concluded that WEPS in PCRaster is suitable for prediction of wind erosion in a Sahelian environment. A constraint of WEPS in PCRaster is that WEPS' predictions of spatial variation in sediment transport are closely linked to the spatial variation in the input parameters. A good estimation of the spatial variation of the input parameters was required. Obtaining these might be an expensive exercise and could make its use in the Sahel difficult.