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No‐till (NT) is a conservation system that improves the hydrological regime of agricultural slopes by providing greater surface protection and benefits to the physical and hydrological properties of soils. However, the isolated use of NT is not enough to control runoff and its associated degradation processes. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the runoff of agricultural slopes under NT under different runoff control conditions by monitoring 63 rainfall events in two 2.4‐ha zero‐order catchments and 27 rainfall events in four 0.6‐ha macroplots. The catchments are paired and similar in terms of the type of soil and relief, but different regarding the presence of terraces. The macroplots have different soil and crop management systems. By using monitoring techniques, the hyetographs and hydrographs revealed the influence of the different types of management on the catchments and macroplots and allowed rainfall characteristics, runoff volume, runoff coefficients, water infiltration, peak runoff, response times, and curve number to be analysed. The terraces positively affected the NT and controlled runoff and related variables, in addition to infiltration significantly increasing and runoff reducing in the terraced catchment. All the hydrological information assessed pointed to the positive effects provided by the presence of the terraces. The results in the macroplots showed that high amounts of phytomass and/or chiselling do not control runoff and its correlated variables in medium and high magnitude events. The study concludes by underlining the need for additional measures to control runoff (terraces), even in areas under NT and with high phytomass production. Additionally, the study emphasizes the importance of monitoring at the catchment scale to better understand the hydrological behaviour of agricultural areas and provide the necessary parameters to effectively control runoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major challenge in geomorphology is reconciling the disparity between runoff coefficients and erosion rates from the field to the catchment scale. In the European loess belt, a decrease of runoff coefficients and erosion rates occurs with increasing spatial scales. Indeed, it is important to understand the scale dependency of run-off and erosion to manage the off-site impacts of accelerated soil erosion. Accordingly, a continuous simulation of the scale dependency of runoff and erosion, from the field scale to the catchment scale (100 – 1000 km²) was conducted with the Water and Sediment (WaterSed) model for two catchments (Andelle-756 km², and Austreberthe-214 km²) over 12 years (>1000 events). Scale effects were evident with a 100-fold decrease in runoff coefficients and sediment delivery ratios between the field scale and the catchment scale. In spite of a low variability of the annual rainfall (19%), the inter-annual variability of the runoff volume (37%) and erosion rates (92%) at catchment outlets were high. The inter-annual variability of runoff and erosion was closely linked to the number of extreme events per year and their distribution through the year, in particular during periods with highly crusted soil surface states. For these high magnitude events, a complex distributed modelling approach was not necessary as the ability of the soil surface and of the landscape to retain overland flows are largely exceeded. The seasonality of soil surface characteristics also affected the scale dependency of runoff and erosion, from the field scale to the catchment scale. However, this is only observed up to a certain spatial extent, i.e. where hillslope erosion processes are governed by hortonian overland flow. When saturation flows are generated, topography and soil depth become the dominant factors. Understanding runoff and sediment response at different scales should focus on the location and amount of runoff and sediment production within the catchment and the capacity of the downstream flow path to retain or transfer overland flow and sediment. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the need to implement model that represent both hortonian and saturation flows when simulating erosion events at the catchment scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]