Differences in SDR ouptuts for two scenarios seem unrealistic

Science, Research & Data
1

Hi,

I have run SDR models for two land-use scenarios: the current land use (s0) and a hypothetical land-use scenario (s1) where all forests have been cleared. This means that other classes are retained unchanged. I computed the difference in avoided exports (AEX[s1] - AEX[s0]) and avoided erosion (AER[s1] - AER[s0]) between the two scenarios. Given the conceptual framing, I anticipated only positive values for ΔAER and ΔAEX. However, I got some negative values for changes in avoided export. Is this normal? What could have accounted for this? The ΔAER looks fine.

Thanks a lot,

Ernest

2

Hi @efasamoah -

Where are the negative avoided export values occurring?

Avoided export considers both avoided erosion from the pixel, and the retention of sediment originating from upslope. Even if there is more sediment eroding from upslope, the ability of the non-forested areas to retain it is probably significantly less than when they were forested. So i suspect that this could explain the negative results.

~ Stacie