Abstract
Lack of information to prepare erosion maps for quantitative and qualitative sediment evaluation is a major need in watershed management. MPSIAC (Modified Pacific South West International Agency Committee) Model is apparently known as an appropriate method to measure sediment yield of watersheds in Iran. In this study the results obtained from the research on Ivanaki's watershed and sixteen different research projects, which conducted by others, were selected and analyzed. The purposes of this study were to compare works done in the country and show the limitation of the model, usage of it in different conditions and possibility of calculating errors if the input data were not gathered carefully. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to find the sensitive parameters in different watersheds. A database for the model was prepared from six watersheds using Geographic Information System (GIS). By evaluation of nine main factors it was cleared that Land Use, Upland Erosion and Ground Cover were the most sensitive factors respectively and the Climate and Runoff factors were the least, while observation of Runoff and sediment yield did not show this matter. According to the results, each factor which had more input quantity had the highest sensitivity. Finally, the research indicated that the usage of MPSIAC model for watersheds with sediments more than 2.2 ton/ha/yr must not be used, since the model is so sensitive in this status and possible errors may get over 50%.
Highlights
Soil erosion is one of the most prominent environment problems that should be taken under consideration
MPSIAC (Modified Pacific South West International Agency Committee) Model is apparently known as an appropriate method to measure sediment yield of watersheds in Iran
The Ivanaki’s watershed was selected and sediment yield were estimated using MPSIAC model, comparing with Transport-Curve Method for Suspended Sediment Load based on hydrometric station data
Summary
Soil erosion is one of the most prominent environment problems that should be taken under consideration. Utilizing the PSIAC model, but estimating the input parameters from MPSIAC formulas, resulted to a mistake causing two times bigger rate of sedimentation. If the variation of the input data has a minor effect on output data, it could be concluded that these errors affected the results slightly and errors derived from laboratory and field measurements of the parameter could be omitted. There should be given a priority to more sensitive parameters while planning and investing for a watershed to reduce soil erosion. This may result in more reduction of erosion by fewer changes in parameters.
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