Unidad de Cultura Científica y de la Innovación

Named Tiwermod, the new program, based on diffusion equations, will soon begin to be used as an educational tool at the Superior Technical School of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering, so that students will be able to study erosion quickly and easily. All they will need to do is enter a series of variables such as the topographic characteristics of the land, the index of water erosion, the system used to work the land, and the period of time, so the program can make a prediction of the redistribution of soil on the land during said period. A detailed description of the new tool was published in the journal Computer Applications in Engineering Education.
Soil loss due to erosion is one of the main problems in Spanish and world agriculture. Soil loss from erosion implies a loss of productivity, which is worrying, a decrease in water retention capacity, which can worsen flooding problems, and a spreading of contaminants such as sediment and chemical substances absorbed in it. Predicting erosion through models like the one suggested by the team from the University of Cordova can contribute to the designing of appropriate prevention strategies.