Study on rain-runoff process in the peripheral mountainous area of the Sichuan Basin

Abstract

Studies on rain-runoff process in the peripheral mountainous area of the Sichuan Basin, which is regarded as a key ecological shelter, will contribute to flood control and environmental protection for the Upper Yangtze River Basin. In two typical catchments—the Fujiang River Catchment and the Wujiang River Catchment, rainfall simulations have been conducted to study the rain-runoff processes of yellow soil and limestone soil in three types of land use—forestland, farmland and grassland. Results showed that (1) within the same rainfall process, overland flow occurs first on farmland, then on grassland, and finally on forestland; (2) soil surface coverage has a great impact on the occurrence and amount of overland flow. The runoff amount can increase 2–4 times after the coverage is removed; (3) the infiltration before the occurrence of overland flow will decrease because of higher gravel contents of soil, but it takes no effect on infiltration once overland flow becomes stable; (4) the runoff coefficient of the limestone soil forestland is greater than that of the yellow soil forest land, but less than that of the farmland; (5) three empirical infiltration models, including Horton’ model, Kostiakov’ model, and modified Kostiakov’ model, were compared by using the observed results under rainfall simulation. The results showed that the Kostiakov’ model performed better than both the Horton’ model and modified Kostiakov model. According to the results of this research, the Kostiakov’s model can be used to simulate rainfall infiltration when water erosion is modeled in the peripheral mountainous area of the Sichuan Basin.