Observation and Analysis of Rainfall-Runoff Characteristics in a Coastal Granite Catchment in Southern China
This article has been corrected.
VIEW CORRECTIONPublication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 17, Issue 1
Abstract
Soil texture characteristics of a small coastal granite catchment in the Pearl River Basin in southern China were analyzed, revealing loamy sand and sandy loam as the main soil types in this catchment. Rainfall-runoff processes were then analyzed on the basis of the observation of precipitation, runoff yield, and soil water content at two experimental plots in this catchment. The two study plots represented forest and shrub cover, respectively, and both were underlain with highly weathered granite. Average runoff yield coefficients for the forest and shrub plots were 0.113 and 0.042, respectively. A relatively large proportion of interflow was generated only when rainfall was sufficiently large in amount or intensity. A logarithmic relationship existed between precipitation and the maximum infiltration depth for plot A. The main direction of rainwater movement at plot scale was vertical. The runoff yield was composed primarily of infiltration excess overland flow and interflow at the plot scale, whereas overland flow (saturation excess overland flow generated near the stream), interflow and bedrock fissure flow were the main storm flow components of this granite catchment.
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Acknowledgments
This study was jointly supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (no. NNSFC40571027), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (UNSPECIFIED9251027501000021), Innovation and Application Research Fund from Water Resources Department of Guangdong Province (2009-2011), and the seed fund from Sun Yat-sen University (2008-2009). Thanks are expressed to the anonymous reviewers for improvements to an earlier draft of this paper.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 17 • Issue 1 • January 2012
Pages: 138 - 149
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 25, 2010
Accepted: Apr 8, 2011
Published online: Apr 12, 2011
Published in print: Jan 1, 2012
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