Twenty years of scientific activity at Sparacia experimental area. Quaderni di Idronomia Montana 33

The main purpose of this booklet is to give to the participants to the Palermo’s Conference of the EU COST ACTION ES1306 - CONNECTING EUROPEAN CONNECTIVITY RESEARCH - CONNECTEUR a general idea of the scientific activity that was carried out in the past 20 years on the basis of the data collected at the Sparacia experimental station for soil erosion measurement, in Sicily, South Italy. The booklet includes a presentation of the experimental site, a description of the applied methods and procedures for measuring soil erosion processes at the Sparacia experimental area, and an illustration of the developed methodologies for predicting soil erosion from plots, small basins, rills and gullies. It is also included a chapter summarizing development of some regional tools that could be used by technicians and local authorities to make their choices on land management to preserve the soil resource. We wish express the feelings of our sincere gratitude to all friends and colleagues attending the meeting. We feel flattered by the presence of so many distinguished scientists and young and very promising researchers! We owe special thanks to Saskia Keesstra and Artemì Cerdà. They invited us to organize the meeting in Palermo and were always promptly and lovely present, helping us in many instances. Thanks Saskia and thanks Artemì from all of us!