oberRAIN – OBservational and Experimental Research network on RAinfall-vegetation structure Interactions in Natural forests using remote sensing

Vegetation plays a crucial role in reducing soil erosion. However, tall canopies can amplify erosivity by creating large, fast-falling drips. The conditions under which vegetation mitigates versus enhances rainfall erosivity are insufficiently understood.

This project addresses this gap by combining spatially dense measurements of rainfall characteristics, 3D laser scanning, and controlled rainfall experiments across a new Eucor research network (Basel, Karlsruhe, Freiburg). The project will make use of existing infrastructures at the well-instrumented ECOSENSE forest site. We will quantify throughfall volumes, drop size distributions, and kinetic energy in a high spatial resolution. These data will be complemented by drone-based and terrestrial lidar acquisitions under leaf-on and leaf-off conditions to characterize canopy structure. In the Basel rainfall laboratory, canopy architectures will be reconstructed under controlled rainfall regimes to isolate causal mechanisms.

These complementary approaches will establish quantitative relationships between canopy traits, rainfall redistribution, and ground-level erosive power. The project will deliver open datasets of small scale measurements, transferable methods, and ultimately a proof-of-concept for scaling rainfall erosivity predictions from plot to landscape scales. It thereby provides a scientific foundation and cross-border collaboration platform for a subsequent DACH proposal on vegetation–rainfall–erosion interactions.