HESSD Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions HESSD Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss. 1812-2116 Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/hess-2016-501 Technical Note: Monitoring streamflow generation processes at Cape Fear Tauro Flavia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5176-3492 1 Petroselli Andrea 2 Fiori Aldo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6662-5738 3 Romano Nunzio https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7276-6994 4 Rulli Maria Cristina https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9694-4262 5 Porfiri Maurizio 6 Palladino Mario 4 Grimaldi Salvatore https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5715-106X 1 6 Dipartimento per l'Innovazione nei Sistemi Biologici, Agroalimentari e Forestali, University of Tuscia, Viterbo 01100, Italy Department of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences (DAFNE), University of Tuscia, Viterbo 01100, Italy Dipartimento di Ingegneria, RomaTre University, Rome 00146, Italy Department of Agricultural Sciences, AFBE Division, University of Napoli Federico II, Napoli 80138, Italy Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale, Politecnico di Milano, Milan 20133, Italy Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, 11201 Brooklyn, NY, USA Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale 2015 Italy - USA PGR00175 28 09 2016 2016 1 25 Copyright: © 2016 Flavia Tauro et al. 2016 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://hess.copernicus.org/preprints/hess-2016-501/ The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://hess.copernicus.org/preprints/hess-2016-501/hess-2016-501.pdf

Hillslope processes are fundamental for the comprehension of the hydrological response of natural systems. However, their complexity demands real time and continuous observations. In this paper, we assess the feasibility of studying streamflow generation processes at Cape Fear, a "hybrid" hillslope plot at University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy. Cape Fear is a 7&thinsp;&times;&thinsp;7&thinsp;m<sup>2</sup> confined soil-filled wood-sided plot, whose water fluxes can be continuously monitored. The plot design is simple, yet versatile to test hypotheses on the hydrological response of hillslope areas. The suitability of the plot for investigating runoff generation and hillslope processes is presented through a demonstrative experiment in the case of a natural rainfall event. A combination of traditional and innovative measurement techniques confirms that runoff onset is due to saturation overland flow. Future studies will address the influence of diverse land covers and spatial pathways evolution on the response at the hillslope scale.