The development of ephemeral gullies in cultivated areas of Wiśnicz Foothills, Poland

Ephemeral gullies most frequently form and develop on cultivated slopes in natural drainage lines or they are associated with man-made agricultural activities like field borders, furrows, tractor traces and cart roads. The paper presents the results of ephemeral gullies studies carried out in hydrological years 1998-2009 on cultivated slopes in the Wiśnicz Foothills. Ephemeral gullies usually form and develop during single rain or several subsequent rains of high erosivity (of several hundred MJ mm ha-1 h -1) on long cultivated slopes, particularly at the beginning of vegetation period, when most slopes are devoid of vegetation cover or plants are in the inicial stage of growth.