Headcut erosive regimes influenced by groundwater on disturbed agricultural soils

A series of simulated rainfall experiments, testing several soils and slope gradients in a 10 m × 0.8 m laboratory flume, displayed close correlations between initial development of a water table at a 10 cm depth and highly erosive headcut formation. On some soils and gradients, highly erosive headcuts formed consistently and predictably within minutes or seconds of initial water table rise. However, headcuts alone were not good indicators of increased erosion. In most experiments some headcuts formed early, often when surface hydraulic parameter values reached established rill initiation thresholds, but resulted in little or no erosion increase. Later, at initial water table rise, other headcuts formed coincident with major erosion increase, often with surface hydraulic values then less than rill initiation thresholds. On the four soils tested, highly erosive headcuts never formed without groundwater development, except on steep 9° slopes.