Journal
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
Volume 56, Issue 10, Pages -Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1029/2020WR027768
Keywords
rill network; hillslope; soil erosion; geomorphic evolution; model; WEPP
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [42007056]
- Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China [41790431]
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2018M633555]
- Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China [2019JQ-080]
- Shaanxi Province Postdoctoral Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Whereas current erosion models are successful in quantitative estimates of soil erosion by water flow, modeling the coevolution of geomorphological features, particularly rill network properties and soil erosion on hillslopes, is still a major challenge. In this study, we propose a rill evolution modeling approach and combine it with a rainfall-runoff and soil erosion model to simulate the feedback loop of hillslope geomorphic development and soil erosion processes. Rill evolution is mainly characterized by three rill network attributes, rill density, orientation angle, and rill width, all modeled with physical equations. The entire rainfall-runoff-erosion and rill evolution model is tested against a set of rill network evolution and soil erosion data from an experimental hillslope subjected to successive rainfall events. The simulated spatial and temporal variations of rill network characteristics and soil erosion agree well with the measured data. The results demonstrate that the three rill network characteristics continually alter the partitioning of interrill and rill flows and affect the interrill and rill flow erosivity and soil erosion, which in turn modify the rill geometry and rill network planform. Comparatively, existing approaches such as Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) that ignore the rill evolution processes largely underestimate the hillslope soil erosion when using time independent model parameters. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis indicates that both the rill evolution and soil erosion processes are sensitive to the rill evolution parameters, rainfall intensity, and slope angle. These results can inform the development of general geomorphic evolution and soil erosion models on evolving rilled hillslopes.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available