Extreme rainfall events, climate variability and soil erosion. Some comments related to Climate Change in Mediterranean environments

Abstract

We discuss about extreme rainfall events under Climate Change hypothesis illustrated by mean of soil erosion under mediterranean conditions. According scientific literature we concluded that more than half of annual erosion is produced only in three events, not necessarily coinciding some time with absolute rainfall extreme events. Such concentration is observed also at supra annual scales. The coincidence of different results from diverse conditions suggest that mediterranean landscapes are under extreme concentrated erosion processes and annual mean value (annual rate) should be cautiously used. We discuss such evidences under magnitude-frequency relationship reinterpreted, and its implications with climatic variability and climate change.