Soil & Water Res., X:X | DOI: 10.17221/57/2026-SWR

Assessing the efficacy of soil conservation measures in reducing soil loss and surface runoffOriginal Paper

Veronika Sobotková ORCID...1, Lukáš Buršík ORCID...1, Miroslav Dumbrovský ORCID...1, Michal Pochop ORCID...2, Miroslava Plevková ORCID...1
1 Institute of Landscape Water Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic
2 Department of Land Consolidation, Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation, Prague, Czech Republic

Historically, agricultural land in the Czech Republic was highly diverse, and fields were commonly bordered by wooded areas. However, consolidation occurred, particularly during the collectivisation phase, resulting in fields of several hundred hectares. In such a uniform landscape, the soil is threatened by water erosion. In addition, there are other negative impacts on the environment, such as a decline in biodiversity. One of the ways to enhance landscape management is to implement soil conservation measures, e.g. strip cropping, contour farming, and agroforestry systems. This article deals with the impact of soil conservation measures on erosion and runoff conditions. Forty-eight variants were proposed. In some variants broad-base terraces were considered. It was observed that the design of the measures resulted in a significant reduction in both soil loss and surface runoff. Among the evaluated measures, strip cropping proved to be highly effective in reducing sediment transport. The combination of strip cropping (winter barley and winter rapeseed), an agroforestry system featuring 6 m wide grass belts with a slight contour deviation, and two broad-base terraces mitigated erosion by approximately 84%. Nevertheless, this management practice introduces a significant spatial footprint of grass belts and unproductive land, around 27%.

Keywords: agroforestry system; broad-base terrace; contour farming; soil erosion; strip cropping; water erosion

Received: May 7, 2026; Accepted: July 28, 2026; Prepublished online: August 19, 2026 

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