Bohorquez, PatricioPerez-Latorre, Francisco J.Gonzalez-Planet, InmaculadaJimenez-Melero, RaquelParra, Gema2023-11-212023-11-212023-02-23Bohorquez P., Perez-Latorre F.J., Gonzalez-Planet I., Jimenez-Melero R., Parra G. Nature-based solutions for flood mitigation and soil conservation in a steep-slope olive-orchard catchment (Arquillos, Spain). Applied Science, 13(5): 2882, 2023.2076-341710.3390/app13052882https://doi.org/10.3390/app13052882https://hdl.handle.net/10953/1340The frequency and magnitude of flash floods in the olive orchards of southern Spain have increased because of climate change and unsustainable olive-growing techniques. Affected surfaces occupy >85% of the rural regions of the Upper Guadalquivir Basin. Dangerous geomorphic processes record the increase of runoff, soil loss and streamflow through time. We report on ripple/dune growth over a plane bed on overland flows, deep incision of ephemeral gullies in olive groves and rock-bed erosion in streams, showing an extraordinary sediment transport capacity of sub-daily pluvial floods. We develop a novel method to design optimal solutions for natural flood management and erosion risk mitigation. We adopt physical-based equations and build a whole-system model that accurately reproduces the named processes. The approach yields the optimal targeted locations of nature-based solutions (NbSs) for active flow-control by choosing the physical-model parameters that minimise the peak discharge and the erosion-prone area, maximising the soil infiltration capacity. The sub-metric spatial resolution used to resolve microtopographic features of terrains/NbS yields a computational mesh with millions of cells, requiring a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to run massive numerical simulations. Our study could contribute to developing principles and standards for agricultural-management initiatives using NbSs in Mediterranean olive and vineyard orchards.engAtribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 Españahttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/nature-based solutionsdistributed hydrological modelIBER+Guadalquivir BasinEuropean Union Directive 2007/60flash floodgully erosionolive and vineyard orchardsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess