Effective Erosion Parameters for Slopes with Spatially Varying Properties
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 124, Issue 2
Abstract
Overland flow erosion has a significant role in determining the drainage properties of a land surface. Most physically based models of soil erosion over hillslopes use a constant value of critical shear stress τcr and soil erodibility Ct. The amount of soil loss predicted from hillslopes is very sensitive to these parameters. However, point-scale (or local-scale) measurements of these quantities exhibit variability over hillslopes. This paper presents a method for upscaling these values based on the distributions of τcr and Ct. Examples are considered for transient, one-dimensional flow under single storm events to demonstrate the spatiotemporal variation of the field-scale values of τcr and Ct for some realistic cases. These examples reinforced the need to account for spatial variability of parameters to make realistic predictions of soil loss through erosion by overland flow. The influence of spatial trend in the mean behavior of the critical shear stresses and soil erodibilities also is shown to have a significant impact on soil erosion from a hillslope.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 124 • Issue 2 • March 1998
Pages: 81 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Mar 1, 1998
Published in print: Mar 1998
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