Improvement of sediment yield index model through incorporating rainfall erosivity

Soil erosion and sediment yield in watersheds are comprehensively affected by land use/cover changes and climatic factors. The current sediment yield index (SYI) model incorporates parameters of area (A), delivery ratio (DR), and curve number (CN), which reflect the character of underlying surface conditions, while the impact of rainfall intensity on sediment yield could not be properly considered. This study aims to improve the current SYI model by introducing rainfall-related factors such as rainfall erosivity (R) and applying it to estimate the sediment yield of river basin. Taking the Dongjiang River basin, South China, as a case study, the performances of the improved simplified SYI model (SYI-CN + R) were compared and demonstrated at multi-spatiotemporal scales. The results showed that (1) compared with the SYI model which only has the parameter CN (SYI-CN), the model SYI-CN + R achieves better simulation performances at yearly (the efficiency coefficient (CE) is 81% in the whole basin and 62% in the sub-basin) and half-month (CE is 69% in the whole basin and 57% in the sub-basin) time scales. (2) On the basin scale, the simulation performance in the whole basin is better overall compared to that in the sub-basin, and the model SYI-CN + R at the half-month time scale is more suitable for the sediment yield simulation in the Dongjiang River basin, with higher value of correlation coefficient (CC) of 87% and 83% for the whole basin and the sub-basin, respectively. And (3) the values of CN and R have an obvious spatial gradient in the whole basin, showing an increasing trend from northeast to southwest as a whole, with larger values concentrated in the lower reaches and smaller values in the middle and upper reaches. This study extends the application and improves the performance of the SYI model, and provides a basis for soil and water conservation in a river basin with fewer observation data.

Automated summary

Soil erosion and sediment yield in watersheds are influenced by land use/cover changes and climatic factors. The current sediment yield index (SYI) model does not take rainfall intensity into consideration. This study aims to improve the SYI model by introducing rainfall-related factors and applies it to estimate sediment yield in the Dongjiang River basin. The improved SYI-CN + R model shows better simulation performance at different time scales and provides insights into the spatial distribution of sediment yield in the basin.