The description of soil erosion through a kinematic wave model

Kinematic wave models offer a powerful tool for interpreting erosion experiments and for forecasting soil and water losses under different management systems. One important problem is the identification of the model parameters. To estimate the influence of error in the estimation of parameters a sensitivity analysis was performed. A previous survey of the soil erosion literature provided data to establish the expected ranges for each parameter. Of the three main parameters, the interrill and rill erosion coefficients, and the rill water depth coefficient, the last is the most important since sediment concentration is most sensitive to variations in this parameter, although the range of variation in the model is affected by the reference values of the other parameters. A simulated rainfall experiment in rectangular plots of 5 × 15 m2 on a 20% slope provided data which were fitted to the model. The agreement between the model and the data was reasonably good. Sediment yield was related linearly to total runoff volume in individual simulation events.