FUERO: foundations of a fuzzy exploratory model for soil erosion hazard prediction

This paper describes the foundations of FUERO, a FUzzy exploratory model for soil EROsion hazard prediction, which explores cause-effect relationships on the basis of general knowledge about causes and specific relations between processes and indicators of soil erosion. The model was designed to investigate the susceptibility of specific areas of a landscape to erosion by incorporating expert knowledge, in the sense that information on soil properties and/or landscape elements assumed to control accelerated soil erosion could be incorporated into the modelling process. Fuzzification of the landscape elements used in modelling the likelihood of an area to be affected by different degrees of erosion was done using a Fuzzy Semantic Import Modelling approach. Fuzzy min-max operators were used within a GI System for determining the likelihood an area to low, moderate or high erosion hazard. Although the model provides qualitative estimations, it showed very useful to explore indicators-causes-processes relationships. In addition, it allowed testing the importance of individual landscape elements related to soil erosion and selection of those that best predict soil erosion over a particular area. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.