OPERATIONAL MODEL FOR THE DESIGN OF OPTIMUM WIND BREAKS TO REDUCE WIND-CAUSED EROSION OF SOIL

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL MODEL FOR THE DESIGN AND PLACEMENT OF WIND BREAKS TO CONTROLSOIL EROSION. OPTIMUM PROTECTION IS RELATED TO PHYSICAL PARAMETERS (HEIGHT, WIDTH, POROSITY, MATERIAL), NUMBER OF BARRIERS, LOCAL TERRAIN FEATURES, SOIL CHARACTERISTICS (INCLUDING SIZE DISTRIBUTION, MOISTURE CONTENT, COMPOSITION)AND METEOROLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS. CONSEQUENTLY, SIMULATION MODULES WILL HAVE TO BE DEVELOPED FOR WIND BARRIER AERODYNAMICS, WIND FLOW OVER COMPLEX TERRAIN, PARTICULATE SALTATION, SETTLEMENT, AND COLLECTION, AS WELL AS MODULES FOR GRAPHICAL DESIGN, ECONOMICS, AND OPTIMIZATION. PHASE I WORK WILL FOCUS ON DEFINITION OF ALL MODULES OF THE SOFTWARE SYSTEM AND THEIR OPERATIONAL ROLE, ASSESSMENT OF TECHNICAL AND MARKET FEASIBILITY OF THE MODEL,AND IDENTIFICATION OF SITES AND DATA BASES FOR MODEL VALIDATION. PHASE I WILL ALSO PRODUCE A DEMONSTRATION PROTOTYPE OF THE MODEL. THE OPERATIONAL MODEL, ALONG WITH FIELD VALIDATION EXPERIMENTS, WOULD BE CARRIED OUT IN PHASE II.