Sustainability and gully erosion in agricultural areas of Southern Spain

This work presents the results obtained in several studies on the quantification of gully erosion in annual and woody crops in the Guadalquivir Valley. The experimental results show that gully erosion may exceed 100 t ha(-1) during years of high rainfall, producing the loss of a significant percentage of arable land area and hampering management practices. In addition, this study presents a brief analysis of the land management dynamics that led to this situation, the characteristics and cost of the available technologies for gully control and, the new perspectives offered by the integral restoration approaches with regards to the ecosystem services provided by agricultural zones in the changing context of environmental requirements that stem from the new Common Agricultural Policy.