In Europe, especially in the Mediterranean area, water erosion seriously affects 50% to 70% of agricultural land. However, there is a lack of field-data on water erosion rates for agricultural areas in semiarid Mediterranean climates. This paper describes an experimental field station (La Higueruela Station) for the continuous monitoring of water erosion that was set up in 1992 in central Spain (Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha). In the study area, the annual precipitation is around 450 mm with a very irregular inter-annual and seasonal distribution, which includes a strong drought in summer. The geology is characterized by non-consolidated Miocene materials, mostly arcosics. The area presents a low relief and gentle slopes, generally
