A GLUE-based assessment of WaTEM/SEDEM for simulating soil erosion, transport, and deposition in soil conservation optimised agricultural watersheds

Seufferheld, Kay D.; Batista, Pedro V. G.; Shokati, Hadi; Scholten, Thomas; Fiener, Peter

doi:10.5194/soil-12-301-2026

Articles | Volume 12, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-12-301-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Advances in dynamic soil modelling across scales

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-12-301-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 1

Original research article

|

30 Mar 2026

Original research article |

| 30 Mar 2026

A GLUE-based assessment of WaTEM/SEDEM for simulating soil erosion, transport, and deposition in soil conservation optimised agricultural watersheds

Kay D. Seufferheld, Pedro V. G. Batista, Hadi Shokati, Thomas Scholten, and Peter Fiener

Data sets

A GLUE-based assessment of WaTEM/SEDEM - Dataset and code Kay D. Seufferheld et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18714865

Model code and software

A GLUE-based assessment of WaTEM/SEDEM - Dataset and code Kay D. Seufferheld et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18714865

Short summary

Soil erosion threatens global food security, yet modeling soil conservation remains challenging. We evaluated WaTEM/SEDEM (Water and Tillage Erosion Model/Sediment Delivery Model) in six highly instrumented micro-scale watersheds optimised for soil conservation using a GLUE (Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation) framework. The model captured the magnitude of very low sediment yields but showed limited accuracy for annual steps. However, it performed well over eight-year timeframes and larger spatial scales, demonstrating its suitability for strategic, long-term soil conservation planning.