Establishing a Soil Loss Threshold for Limiting Rilling
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 6
Abstract
In this paper a frequency analysis of event soil loss measurements collected in the period 1999–2012 at the microplots and plots of the Sparacia Experimental Area in Sicily, southern Italy, was developed. The analysis was carried out using the annual maximum soil loss measurements normalized by the mean soil loss measured at a given temporal and spatial scale. The empirical frequency distribution of the normalized variable was well fitted by two Gumbel’s theoretical probability distributions discriminated by a value of the normalized variable equal to 2. This last value discriminates between the relatively low and frequent values of the normalized variable and the high and rare ones. The annual maximum soil loss was demonstrated to be representative of the total annual soil erosion at the Sparacia Experimental Area. Then, a threshold soil loss value at the annual temporal scale was calculated by multiplying the frequency factor, equal to 2, by the mean annual maximum soil loss values for each given plot length. The value of the threshold soil loss decreased as the plot length increased. Finally, an analysis of occurrence of rilling was developed with regard both to the classical soil loss tolerance and the defined threshold soil loss. The conclusion that rilling can be limited using a threshold soil loss which is greater than the classical soil loss tolerance was drawn.
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Acknowledgments
All authors set up the research, analyzed and interpreted the results, and contributed to writing this paper. This research was financially supported by PRIN 2010-2011 Project.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 6 • June 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 27, 2014
Accepted: Jul 2, 2014
Published online: Aug 6, 2014
Discussion open until: Jan 6, 2015
Published in print: Jun 1, 2015
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