The influence of storm movement on water erosion: storm direction and velocity effects

Abstract

Although the problem of storm movement affecting flows (shape of the hydrograph and peak discharges) has been recognised for a long time, most overland flow and water erosion studies do not take into account the effect on the runoff response caused by the movement of the storm across the catchment. Ignoring of the storm movement can result in considerable over-and underestimation of runoff volumes and peaks, and associated soil loss by sheet erosion. This work shows the results of laboratory experiments that were undertaken to study the effect of moving storms on the water erosion process. The experiments were carried out using a soil flume adjustable to different slopes and a movable sprinkling-type rainfall simulator. Both the effects of storm velocity and direction, and surface slope were studied. To simulate moving rainstorms, the rainfall simulator was moved upstream and downstream over the soil surface. The results show that the storm direction and velocity strongly affect the water erosion process. The soil loss caused by the downstream moving rainstorms is higher than that caused by the identical upstream moving rainfall storms.

Water erosion response to rainfall and land use in different drought-level years in a loess hilly area of China

“…This was likely the key reason for the differences in water erosion between the three years. Such findings have been supported by other studies (Jiao et al, 1999;de Lima et al, 2003). Accordingly, more attention should be paid to other important rainfall features which influence water erosion dynamics more than rainfall depth.…”

“…Soil erosion caused by water is one of the most severe erosion forms across the globe and has attracted high attention during the past, mainly due to its on-site and off-site destructive effects (Fu, 1989;Römkens et al, 2001;de Lima et al, 2003;Davision et al, 2005;Chen et al, 2007a;Casalí et al, 2008;Wei et al, 2009). Abundant studies have uncovered that persistent severe erosion can deteriorate soil conditions, reduce water holding capacity, decrease aggregate stability and soil biodiversity, and bring serious ecological crisis such as eutrophication, non-point pollution and eventually land degradation (Bosch and Hewlett, 1982;Gafur et al, 2003;Singer and Shainberg, 2004;Ulén and Kalisky, 2005;Jin et al, 2008).…”

The effect of land uses and rainfall regimes on runoff and soil erosion in the semi-arid loess hilly area, China

“…Most studies focused on the response of the runoff/erosion process to single rainfall pattern and different vegetation types (Yeh et al, 2000;de Lima et al, 2003;Kirkby et al, 2005). Undoubtedly, controlling soil erosion requires much more detailed and accurate data in the real world (Elsen et al, 2003).…”

Using thermal tracers to estimate flow velocities of shallow flows: laboratory and field experiments

“…2); the soil surface was a uniformly smooth plane, without any rough protuberances or other microtopographic elements. The soil used in the experiments was a sandy loam (collected from the right banks of River Mondego, in Coimbra, Portugal; details are given in de Lima et al, 2003;Montenegro et al, 2013); the soil layer had a depth of 0.10 m. A water supply system, comprising a constant head tank and a feeder tank, was installed at the upstream end of the soil flume and generated a constant flow.…”