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Measuring and Predicting Ridge‐Orientation Effect on Soil Surface Roughness
Author(s) -
Saleh Ali
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1994.03615995005800040033x
Subject(s) - ridge , surface roughness , surface finish , perpendicular , orientation (vector space) , surface (topology) , erosion , geometry , geology , materials science , optics , geomorphology , composite material , mathematics , physics , paleontology
Surface roughness significantly reduces soil erosion by wind. Methods commonly used to measure soil roughness function only in parallel and perpendicular directions to the oriented (ridge) roughness. This study was conducted to develop a simple procedure to estimate soil roughness at any given angle with respect to ridge orientation, for aggregated or nonaggregated ridged surfaces. Surface roughness was determined by the chain method. Surface roughness measured at different angles on simulated and field plots matched very closely ( R 2 ≥ 0.985, P ≤ 0.001) with those predicted from equations developed in this study. This simple method enables one to estimate a surface roughness parameter for any wind direction with respect to ridge orientation. This should result in a better evaluation of roughness influence on wind erosion.