Search results for "rill erosion"
showing 10 items of 23 documents
Measuring rill erosion using structure from motion: A plot experiment
2017
Abstract In this paper the results of a plot experiment on rill erosion are reported. The rill network, manually incised on the soil and further shaped by a clear inflow discharge, was surveyed using the three-dimensional photo-reconstruction (3D-PR) technique which allows to obtain a digital terrain model (DTM) by a large series of oblique images of the channel from consumer un-calibrated and non-metric cameras. The three-dimensional (3D) DTM and the quasi-tridimensional (2.5D) model were generated by Agisoft Photoscan software. For a single rill channel, the reliability of the 3D image-based ground measurements of morphological and hydraulic variables was positively tested by the correspo…
Comment on “Rill erosion processes on steep colluvial deposit slope under heavy rainfall in flume experiments with artificial rain by F. Jiang et al.”
2020
Abstract Since rill flows are characterized by small water depths and steeply sloping channels, the corresponding hydraulic conditions are very different to those which are typically found in channels of streams and rivers. Furthermore, limited information is currently available on the effect of rainfall on flow resistance. The objective of this comment was to investigate the applicability of a recently theoretically deduced rill flow resistance equation, based on a power-velocity profile, using measurements carried out by Jiang et al. for both different slope steepness conditions and rainfall intensity. The relationship between the velocity profile parameter Γ, the channel slope and the fl…
Measuring Field Rill Erodibility by a Simplified Method
2015
Many process-oriented erosion prediction models reproduce rill erosion as affected by site-specific parameters, as for example, rill erodibility, and thus, their practical application requires the measurement of these parameters or their estimate. The aim of this paper was establishing a method for indirectly measuring field rill erodibility. A simple mathematical approach based on a known soil detachment equation and accounting for the rill erosion dynamic process is applied. Field measurements carried out for seven natural rainfall events occurring at the plots of the Sparacia experimental station, southern Italy, are used for indirectly measuring the rill erodibility of the investigated …
Testing a new rill flow resistance approach using the Water Erosion Prediction Project experimental database
2018
In this paper, a recently theoretically deduced rill flow resistance equation, based on a power‐velocity profile, was tested using the Water Erosion Prediction Project database. This database includes measurements of flow velocity, water depth, cross section area, wetted perimeter, and bed slope that were made in rills shaped on experimental sites distributed across the continental United States. In particular, three different experimental conditions (only rainfall, only flow, and rain with flow) were examined, and for each condition, the theoretically based relationship for estimating the Γ function of the power velocity profile was calibrated. The results established that (a) the Darcy‐We…
Effects of Biochar Addition on Rill Flow Resistance
2021
The development of rills on a hillslope whose soil is amended by biochar remains a topic to be developed. A theoretical rill flow resistance equation, obtained by the integration of a power velocity distribution, was assessed using available measurements at plot scale with a biochar added soil. The biochar was incorporated and mixed with the arable soil using a biochar content BC of 6 and 12 kg m−2. The developed analysis demonstrated that an accurate estimate of the velocity profile parameter Гv can be obtained by the proposed power equation using an exponent e of the Reynolds number which decreases for increasing BC values. This result pointed out that the increase of biochar content dump…
Geomorphologic Risk Modelling of the Sibiu Depression Using Geospatial Surface Analyses
2011
Extreme events in general, and the geomorphologic ones in particular, are highly topical problems. There were addresses by many researchers in the field of geology and physical geography (more specific by the climatologists and geomorphologists), but also by biologists, chemists, ecologists, etc. These are studied through the analysis of some types of processes and production mechanisms, and secondly by the effects they create on other environmental subsystems.
Analysis of soil loss data from plots of differing length for the Sparacia experimental area, Sicily, Italy
2010
Widely used models of the soil erosion process, such as the empirical universal soil loss equation (USLE) and revised USLE (RUSLE), suggest that soil loss, i.e. the mass of soil lost by water erosion per unit surface area, increases with slope length, λ, although contrasting experimental results may be found in the literature. Experiments were carried out at the Sparacia site, Sicily, to establish the influence of plot length on soil loss. This was tested using data characterised by a high number of replicated, bare plots of different lengths (0.25, 0.4, 1, 2, 5, 11, 22, 33 and 44 m), simultaneously operating in the 1999–2008 period. Event soil losses did not vary significantly with λ or ev…
Concise review of interrill erosion studies in SE Spain (Alicante and Murcia): erosion rates and progress of knowledge from the 1980s
2005
From the 1980s onward studies on interrill soil erosion were intensified in SE Spain. The main achievements of the research carried out in the field areas of Alicante and Murcia concern: first, (1) the estimation of erosion rates directly in the field under a wide range of methodologies, different scales and different environmental conditions; (2) estimations based on existing models, such as the USLE, carried out for different subcatchments of the Segura and Júcar catchments; and (3) other parametric and physical event-based models have also been calibrated and validated. Second, the progress of the knowledge in understanding erosion mechanisms. New and reviewed concepts regarding mainly h…
Modeling Rill Erosion at the Sparacia Experimental Area
2015
In this paper the contributions of rill and interrill components to total soil erosion monitored at event scale at the Sparacia experimental area, Southern Italy, were firstly compared and the dominance of the rill component was detected. Then, the reliability of two empirical relationships between the rill length and its eroded volume and among the morphological variables (length, width, depth and volume) describing the channelized process was tested using both direct measurements of rills, carried out for the October 3, 2011 event, and those of ephemeral gullies surveyed on February 2010 at Sparacia. The measurements of rills detected by the direct field relief were compared with those ob…
Predicting rainfall erosivity by momentum and kinetic energy in Mediterranean environment
2018
Abstract Rainfall erosivity is an index that describes the power of rainfall to cause soil erosion and it is used around the world for assessing and predicting soil loss on agricultural lands. Erosivity can be represented in terms of both rainfall momentum and kinetic energy, both calculated per unit time and area. Contrasting results on the representativeness of these two variables are available: some authors stated that momentum and kinetic energy are practically interchangeable in soil loss estimation while other found that kinetic energy is the most suitable expression of rainfall erosivity. The direct and continuous measurements of momentum and kinetic energy by a disdrometer allow als…