Rainfall Response of Degraded Soil Following Reforestation in the Copper Basin, Tennessee

    Solution ID
    Description of solution
    Summary (Challenges; Objectives)

    "After a century of degradation due to mining, logging, acidification, and grazing, the 130-km2 Copper Basin in southeastern Tennessee became the site of increasingly extensive and successful reforestation efforts.""Although not intended as such, the denudation and later reforestation of the Copper Basin can be regarded as a long-termexperiment from which much can be learned about the effects of these landscape changes on the rainfall runoff response of hillslopes.""Results of 54 rainfall simulation experiments ... demonstrate that hydrologic recovery of soils in the Copper Basin lags significantly behind the establishment of tree cover and the protection offered by vegetation against soil erosion"

    Technical characteristics

    e.g. rainfall simulator-infiltrometer to examine differences (forest parts of different ages) in rainfall runoff and soil detachment.

    Success factors / lessons learnt

    "The most immediate improvement brought by revegetation is to stabilize upland sediment." So here an almost direct influence (reduction) on soil erosion in the reforested can be seen.

    Limiting factors / lessons learnt

    <ul><li>"In spite of 50+ years of revegetation in the Copper Basin, soils in the historically denuded area still contain significantly less organic matter than forest soils outside the basin."</li><li>"Because of the extent and persistence of denudation, lag times to the hydrologic recovery of hillslopes in the Copper Basin may be unusually long."</li><li>"The Copper Basin clearly demonstrates that restoring the hydrologic function of seriously degraded soils is possible, but complex, costly, and slow."</li></ul>

    Location Latitude
    35.0000000000
    Location Longitude
    -84.3667000000
    Comment on location

    The study was conducted at the Copper Basin in southeastern Tennessee, with an area of 130 square kilometers and even a small area extending into the U. S. state of Georgia.

    Keywords
    Ecosystem (s) impacted
    Woodland and forest
    Hazard(s) concerned
    Erosion
    Other challenges
    Ecosystem restoration
    Other keyword
    Reforestation
    Exposition
    Exposed assets
    Urban settings
    Is there population exposed?
    I don’t know
    Activity
    Are there jobs created in the nature-based sector?
    Don't know
    Are there new employments in tourism sector, sport activities or recreational activites ?
    Don't know
    Are there new activities in the tourism sector , sport activities or recreational activites?
    Don't know
    Are there new/traditional activities that increased?
    I don't know
    Temporal aspects
    Design life time of the action
    More than 10 years
    Implementation time of the action
    More than 10 years
    Others
    Participatory process
    No
    Is it possible to transpose this action in a different context?
    Yes, but difficult to transpose
    References

    Harden, C. P., &amp; Mathews, L. (2000). Rainfall response of degraded soil following reforestation in the Copper Basin, Tennessee, USA. <em>Environmental Management</em>, 26(2), 163-174. 

    Risk reduction
    Hazard
    +
    Exposure
    +
    Vulnerability
    +
    Feasibility
    Technical Feasibility
    +
    Economic Feasibility
    ?
    Environment
    Water
    +
    Soil
    +
    Vegetation
    +
    Landscape
    +
    Society
    Quality of Life
    ?
    Community involvement
    ?
    Economy
    Revitalization
    ?
    Local Economy
    ?