Abstract
Rainfall erosivity is one of the most important parameters that influence soil erosion rates. It is characterized by a large spatial and temporal variability. For example, in Slovenia, which covers around 20,000 km2, the annual rainfall erosivity ranges from less than 1,000 MJ mm ha−1 h−1 to more than 10,000 MJ mm ha−1 h−1. Drop size distribution (DSD) data are needed to investigate rainfall erosivity characteristics. More than 2 years of DSD measurements using optical disdrometers located at six stations in Slovenia were used to investigate the spatial and temporal variability in rainfall erosivity in Slovenia. Experimental results have indicated that elevation is a poor predictor of rainfall erosivity and that erosivity is more strongly correlated to the mean annual precipitation. Approximately 90% of the total kinetic energy (KE) was accounted for in about 35% of 1 min disdrometer data. The highest 1 min intensities (I) and consequently also KE values were measured in summer followed by autumn and spring. The local KE-I equation yielded an acceptable fit to the measured data in case of all six stations. The relatively large percentage of 1 min rainfall intensities above 5 mm/h can at least partially explain some very high annual rainfall erosivity values (i.e., near or above 10,000 MJ mm ha−1 h−1). Convective and large-scale precipitation events also result in various rainfall erosivity characteristics. The station microlocation and wind impacts in case of some stations yielded relatively large differences between the data measured using the optical disdrometer and the pluviograph. Preliminary conclusions have been gathered, but further measurements are needed to get even better insight into spatial and temporal variability in rainfall erosivity under Alpine climate in Slovenia.
Highlights
Rainfall erosivity is one of the main drivers of soil erosion, while erosion by water is one of the most studied types of erosion (Bezak et al, 2021b; Borrelli et al, 2021)
Slovenian Stations in the Rainfall Erosivity Database on the European Scale As background information for this study, we firstly checked the dependence between the annual rainfall erosivity, altitude, and long-term mean annual precipitation for the Slovenian stations included in the Rainfall Erosivity Database on the European Scale (REDES), which is used for constructing the rainfall erosivity map of Europe (Panagos et al, 2015a, 2016b; Ballabio et al, 2017; Bezak et al, 2020)
Among the 31 stations included in REDES database, Kneške Ravne and Vogel stations are included in this study. 5 min data measured by pluviographs were used as an input in the REDES database (Panagos et al, 2015a)
Summary
Rainfall erosivity is one of the main drivers of soil erosion, while erosion by water is one of the most studied types of erosion (Bezak et al, 2021b; Borrelli et al, 2021). One of the many developed equations that relate rainfall intensity (I) to rainfall kinetic energy (KE) should be applied (Petan et al, 2010; Panagos et al, 2015a, 2016b; Angulo-Martínez et al, 2016; Ballabio et al, 2017; Mineo et al, 2019). Other types of disdrometers, such as 2-Dimensional Video Disdrometers or laser-optical disdrometers, can be used for detecting the number of raindrops in different classes (called bins), which are defined based on raindrop diameter and fall velocity (Tokay et al, 2013) This kind of data is known as drop size distribution (DSD). It can be used to calculate the rainfall KE and to develop KE-I equations (Petan et al, 2010; Angulo-Martínez et al, 2016; Wilken et al, 2018)
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