scholarly journals Rainfall erosivity mapping over mainland China based on high density hourly rainfall records

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianyu Yue ◽  
Shuiqing Yin ◽  
Yun Xie ◽  
Bofu Yu ◽  
Baoyuan Liu

Abstract. Rainfall erosivity represents the effect of rainfall and runoff on the average rate of soil erosion. Maps of rainfall erosivity are indispensable for soil erosion assessment using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and its successors. To improve current erosivity maps based on daily rainfall data for mainland China, hourly rainfall data from 2381 stations for the period 1951–2018 were collected to generate the R factor and the 1-in-10-year EI30 maps (available at https://dx.doi.org/10.12275/bnu.clicia.rainfallerosivity.CN.001; Yue et al., 2020). Rainfall data at 1-min intervals from 62 stations (18 stations) were collected to calculate rainfall erosivities as true values to evaluate the improvement of the new R factor map (1-in-10-year EI30 map) from the current maps. Both the R factor and 1-in-10-year EI30 decreased from the southeastern to the northwestern, ranging from 0 to 25300 MJ mm ha−1 h−1 a−1 for the R factor and 0 to 11246 MJ mm ha−1 h−1 for the 1-in-10-year EI30. New maps indicated current maps existed an underestimation for most of the southeastern areas and an overestimation for most of the middle and western areas. Comparing with the current maps, the R factor map generated in this study improved the accuracy from 19.4 % to 15.9 % in the mid-western and eastern regions, from 45.2 % to 21.6 % in the western region, and the 1-in-10-year EI30 map in the mid-western and eastern regions improved the accuracy from 21.7 % to 13.0 %. The improvement of the new R factor map can be mainly contributed to the increase of data resolution from daily data to hourly data, whereas that of new 1-in-10-year EI30 map to the increase of the number of stations from 744 to 2381. The effect of increasing the number of stations to improve the interpolation seems to be not very obvious when the station density was denser than about 10 · 103 km2 1 station.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Petry ◽  
Fernando Mainardi Fan

<p>In erosion studies the behavior of rainfall is primordial, since rain is responsible for the first stage of the erosion process: the detachment of soil particles. The erosive potential of rainfall, erosivity, is considered in the universal soil loss equations (R)USLE family through the parameter R, or R factor. This factor is calculated from the rainfall erosivity index, which is the product of kinetic energy of the rain by the maximum intensity of the rain of 30 minutes of duration. As sub-hour rainfall data is not always available, there are in the literature a series of equations obtained from regression, which use monthly and annual rainfall and present a good estimate of erosivity for your study site. In Brazil, in addition to limitations regarding the temporal resolution of rainfall data, there are also spatial limitations. Monitoring stations are concentrated mostly in urbanized areas, usually near the coast. The other regions, such as agricultural and forest areas, are poorly monitored, and these areas are of great interest for monitoring erosion, not only because they are periodically exposed soil areas, but also because of the high rainfall rates that humid forests like Amazon have. MSWEP is a rainfall database that combines observed, satellite and reanalysis data. It has global coverage, temporal resolution of 3 hours, spatial 0.1º and data from 1979 to 2016. Databases like this have great potential to be used in areas such as Brazil, due to its spatial and temporal resolution. In this context, considering the relevance that the soil loss equations still present today, this work developed a rainfall erosivity database entitled REDB-BR (Rainfall Erosivity Database for Brazil). It provides the R factor in a 0.1º resolution grid, developed with 37 years of rainfall data from the MSWEP dataset. The R factor was calculated trough 73 erosivity index regression equations, which mostly uses the Modified Fournier Index (MFI), a relation between monthly precipitation and annual precipitation. Thiessen polygons were used in order to spatialize and define the areas of each equation. Over the Brazilian territory, the R factor ranges from 1.200 to 20.000 MJ mm ha-1 h-1 year-1, with the higher values in the North region, and the lowest values in the Northeast. The spatial patterns of erosivity are very similar to the climatic zones of Brazil. The R factor map takes advantage of MSWEP dataset and presents a spatial resolution very detailed to a country with continental scale such as Brazil. The database includes the equations shapefile and table, Thiessen Polygons shapefile and the R factor map in raster format, which allows more possibilities of application. The database can be accessed at <https://zenodo.org/record/4428308#.X_hxsOhKiUk>. We identified sudden changes in behavior between the delimited areas, which suggests a need for more regression equations in order to better represent the behavior of the erosivity in the Brazilian territory.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-101
Author(s):  
Roberto Avelino Cecílio ◽  
João Paulo Bestete de Oliveira ◽  
David Bruno de Sousa Teixeira ◽  
Fernando Falco Pruski ◽  
Sidney Sara Zanetti

Soil erosion is a serious agricultural and environmental problem considered as a threat to sustainable development around the world. Rainfall is the primary cause of soil erosion, what leads the knowledge of its potential to cause soil erosion (rainfall erosivity – R-factor) to be a valuable tool for the design of land conservation best practices. As Brazil has a lack of information about rainfall erosivity, the present paper has determined the R-factor of 141 pluviographic stations distributed over Brazilian territory. Initially, erosive rainfalls were identified, and then the EI30 erosivity index was used to obtain the rainfall erosivity values. Regression models for the estimation of rainfall erosivity using daily rainfall data were established based on the correlation between the monthly average values of erosivity and the modified Fournier index. Results showed that the annual rainfall erosivity in the Brazilian stations analyzed ranged from 368.7 to 16,850.6 MJ mm ha-1 h-1 year-1. The results presented help to expand information about the spatial distribution of rainfall erosivity in Brazil, contributing to better conservation planning of land use.


Soil Research ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 143 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Yu

Pluviograph data at 6-min intervals for 41 sites in the tropics of Australia were used to compute the rainfall and runoff factor (R-factor) for the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), and a daily rainfall erosivity model was validated for these tropical sites. Mean annual rainfall varies from about 300 mm at Jervois (015602) to about 4000 at Tully (032042). The corresponding R-factor ranges from 1080 to 33500 MJ·mm/(ha ·h·year). For these tropical sites, both rainfall and rainfall erosivity are highly seasonal with a single peak in February mostly. Summer months (November–April) typically contribute about 80% of annual rainfall and about 90% of the R-factor. The daily erosivity model performed better for the tropical sites with a marked wet season in summer in comparison to model performance in temperate regions of Australia where peak rainfall and peak rainfall erosivity may occur in different seasons. A set of regional parameters depending on seasonal rainfall was developed so that the R-factor and its seasonal distribution can be estimated for sites without pluviograph data. The prediction error using the regional parameter values is about 20% for the R-factor and 1% for its monthly distribution for these tropical sites.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (No. 2) ◽  
pp. 117-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brychta ◽  
M. Janeček

The study presents all approaches of rainfall erosivity factor (R) computation and estimation used in the Czech Republic (CR). A lot of distortions stem from the difference in erosive rainfall criteria, time period, tipping rain gauges errors, low temporal resolution of rainfall data, the type of interpolation method, and inappropriate covariates. Differences in resulting R values and their spatial distribution caused by the described approaches were analyzed using the geostatistical method of Empirical Bayesian Kriging and the tools of the geographic information system (GIS). Similarity with the highest temporal resolution approach using 1-min rainfall data was analyzed. Different types of covariates were tested for incorporation to the cokriging method. Only longitude exhibits high correlation with R and can be recommended for the CR conditions. By incorporating covariates such as elevation, with no or weak correlation with R, the results can be distorted even by 81%. Because of significant yearly variation of R factor values and not clearly confirmed methodology of R values calculation and their estimation at unmeasured places we recommend the R factor for agricultural land in the Czech Republic R = 40 MJ/ha·cm/h +/– 10% depends on geographic location.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 784-797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marija Ivković ◽  
Andrijana Todorović ◽  
Jasna Plavšić

Abstract Flood forecasting relies on good quality of observed and forecasted rainfall. In Serbia, the recording rain gauge network is sparse and rainfall data mainly come from dense non-recording rain gauges. This is not beneficial for flood forecasting in smaller catchments and short-duration events, when hydrologic models operating on subdaily scale are applied. Moreover, differences in rainfall amounts from two types of gauges can be considerable, which is common in operational hydrological practice. This paper examines the possibility of including daily rainfall data from dense observation networks in flood forecasting based on subdaily data, using the extreme flood event in the Kolubara catchment in May 2014 as a case study. Daily rainfall from a dense observation network is disaggregated to hourly scale using the MuDRain multivariate disaggregation software. The disaggregation procedure results in well-reproduced rainfall dynamics and adjusts rainfall volume to the values from the non-recording gauges. The fully distributed wflow_hbv model, which is under development as a forecasting tool for the Kolubara catchment, is used for flood simulations with two alternative hourly rainfall data. The results show an improvement when the disaggregated rainfall from denser network is used, thus indicating the significance of better representation of rainfall temporal and spatial variability for flood forecasting.


Soil Research ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hua Lu ◽  
Bofu Yu

Spatially distributed rainfall erosivity and its seasonal distribution are needed to use the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) for erosion risk assessment at large scale. An erosivity model and 20-year daily rainfall data at 0.05° resolution were used to predict the R-factor and its monthly distribution for RUSLE in Australia. Predicted R-factor values were compared with those previously calculated using pluviograph data for 132 sites around Australia. The daily erosivity model was further evaluated for 43 sites where long-term pluviograph data were available. Predicted and calculated monthly distributions of the R-factor were compared for these 43 sites. For the 132 sites where R-factor values were compiled from previous investigations, the model efficiency was 0.81 with root mean squared error (rmse) of 1832 MJ.mm/(ha.h.year), or 47.5% of the mean for the 132 sites. For the additional 43 sites, the coefficient of efficiency was 0.93 with a 12.7 mm rainfall threshold, and 0.94 when all storms were included in the calculations. The rmse was 908 MJ.mm/(ha.h.year), or 28.6% of the mean for the 43 sites with a zero rainfall threshold. The prediction error for monthly distribution of the R-factor was 2.3% with a zero threshold and 2.5% with 12.7�mm threshold. This and previous studies have shown that the daily rainfall erosivity model can be used to accurately predict the R-factor and its seasonal distribution in Australia. Digital maps were produced showing the spatial and seasonal distribution of the R-factor at 0.05° resolution in Australia. These maps have been used to assess rill and sheet erosion rate at the continental scale.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (s1) ◽  
pp. 31-36
Author(s):  
Peter Valent ◽  
Roman Výleta

Abstract Rainfall erosivity factor (R) of the USLE model is one of the most popular indicators of areas potentially susceptible to soil erosion. Its value is influenced by the number and intensity of extreme rainfall events. Since the regional climate models expect that the intensity of heavy rainfall events will increase in the future, the currently used R-factor values are expected to change as well. This study investigates possible changes in the values of R-factor due to climate change in the Myjava region in Slovakia that is severely affected by soil erosion. Two rain gauge stations with high-resolution 1-minute data were used to build a multiple linear regression model (r 2 = 0.98) between monthly EI 30 values and other monthly rainfall characteristics derived from low-resolution daily data. The model was used to estimate at-site R-values in 13 additional rain gauge stations homogeneously dispersed over the whole region for four periods (1981–2010, 2011–2040, 2041–2070, 2071–2100). The at-site estimates were used to create R-factor maps using a geostatistical approach. The results showed that the mean R-factor values in the region might change from 429 to as much as 520 MJ.mm.ha−1.h−1.yr−1 in the second half of the 21st century representing a 20.5% increase.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 2306
Author(s):  
Heeseong Park ◽  
Gunhui Chung

As infrastructure and populations are highly condensed in megacities, urban flood management has become a significant issue because of the potentially severe loss of lives and properties. In the megacities, rainfall from the catchment must be discharged throughout the stormwater pipe networks of which the travel time is less than one hour because of the high impervious rate. For a more accurate calculation of runoff from the urban catchment, hourly or even sub-hourly (minute) rainfall data must be applied. However, the available data often fail to meet the hydrologic system requirements. Many studies have been conducted to disaggregate time-series data while preserving distributional statistics from observed data. The K-nearest neighbor resampling (KNNR) method is a useful application of the nonparametric disaggregation technique. However, it is not easy to apply in the disaggregation of daily rainfall data into hourly while preserving statistical properties and boundary continuity. Therefore, in this study, three-day rainfall patterns were proposed to improve reproducible ability of statistics. Disaggregated rainfall was resampled only from a group having the same three-day rainfall patterns. To show the applicability of the proposed disaggregation method, probability distribution and L-moment statistics were compared. The proposed KNNR method with three-day rainfall patterns reproduced better the characteristics of rainfall event such as event duration, inter-event time, and toral amount of rainfall event. To calculate runoff from urban catchment, rainfall event is more important than hourly rainfall depth itself. Therefore, the proposed stochastic disaggregation method is useful to hydrologic analysis, particularly in rainfall disaggregation.


Author(s):  
Álvaro J. Back ◽  
Augusto C. Pola ◽  
Nilzo I. Ladwig ◽  
Hugo Schwalm

ABSTRACT This study aimed to determine the rainfall erosivity index in the Valley of Rio do Peixe, in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The data series of three rain gauge stations in the cities of Campos Novos, Videira, and Caçador were used to determine the rainfall erosivity based on the EI30 index and to adjust the equations in order to estimate the EI30 value from the rainfall coefficient. On average, it was observed that erosive rains represents 81.4-88.5% of the annual precipitation. The adjusted equations can be used to estimate rainfall erosivity in locations with only rainfall data. The regional equation specified for the erosivity estimation is EI30 = 74.23 Rc0.8087. The R factor is 8,704.8; 7,340.8; and 6,387.1 MJ mm ha-1 h-1 year-1 for Campos Novos, Videira, and Caçador, respectively. In Campos Novos and Videira, the erosivity was classified as high, while in Caçador, it was classified as average.


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