Open AccessA rain splash transport equation assimilating field and laboratory measurements
Author(s) -
Dunne Thomas,
Malmon Daniel V.,
Mudd Simon M.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: earth surface
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2009jf001302
Subject(s) - splash , surface runoff , sediment transport , erosion , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental science , storm , flux (metallurgy) , sediment , geology , grassland , richards equation , flow (mathematics) , atmospheric sciences , geomorphology , soil science , meteorology , soil water , geotechnical engineering , mechanics , oceanography , physics , ecology , materials science , metallurgy , biology
Process‐based models of hillslope evolution require transport equations relating sediment flux to its major controls. An equation for rain splash transport in the absence of overland flow was constructed by modifying an approach developed by Reeve (1982) and parameterizing it with measurements from single‐drop laboratory experiments and simulated rainfall on a grassland in East Africa. The equation relates rain splash to hillslope gradient, the median raindrop diameter of a storm, and ground cover density; the effect of soil texture on detachability can be incorporated from other published results. The spatial and temporal applicability of such an equation for rain splash transport in the absence of overland flow on uncultivated hillslopes can be estimated from hydrological calculations. The predicted transport is lower than landscape‐averaged geologic erosion rates from Kenya but is large enough to modify short, slowly eroding natural hillslopes as well as microtopographic interrill surfaces between which overland flow transports the mobilized sediment.