Splash detachment: Runoff depth and soil cohesion

doi:10.1016/S0341-8162(87)80013-9

CATENA

Volume 14, Issues 1–3, February–April 1987, Pages 149-155

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0341-8162(87)80013-9 Get rights and content

Summary

A set of laboratory experiments has been carried out in order to investigate the importance of soil cohesion and the interference due to the depth of the surface runoff on the detachment rate of soil particles and aggregates.

Experimental data show that the soil detachment rate decreases as the runoff depth increases. This indicates that the detachment power of the raindrops is partially dispersed by the water layer.

An inverse relationship between soil detachment and soil cohesion has been confirmed. Nevertheless the grain-size distribution must also be used in order to define soil detachability.

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Theoretical and experimental studies have demonstrated that splash erosion on agricultural land can affect agricultural production and the ecosystem. However, the splash erosion process mechanism of loess erosion under the effects of a single raindrop remains unclear. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of single-raindrop splash erosion on the cohesion and internal friction angle of compacted loess under multiple compaction, water contents, and single-raindrop kinetic energies. The results showed that the depth and diameter of the crater were linearly related to both the raindrop kinetic energy and the loess compaction. The variation of crater depth is always lower than the variation of crater diameter, and the effect of the amount of raindrop energy on crater splash erosion is higher than the effect of the variation of compaction on crater splash erosion. Raindrops with higher kinetic energy have higher erosiveness, and this can shorten the ponding point time. When the water content is constant, the fitting curve of cohesion and compaction is the exponential relationship. The increment of cohesion decreases with increasing water content when the water content is lower than the optimum water content (12.7%) and increases with increasing water content when the water content is higher than the optimum water content. However, the increment of internal friction angle consistently increases with increasing water content, which is not affected by the optimum water content. This study could be a reference for soil erosion control in the Loess region.
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To date the roles of raindrop impact in sediment entrainment and transport processes of interrill soil erosion are not yet fully quantified. The objectives are to 1) evaluate the effects of raindrop impact on sediment entrainment, 2) systematically quantify the relative importance of raindrop-driven and flow-driven transport, and 3) characterize sediment size distributions in different sediment transport regimes. A loam soil with 48.4% sand and 23% clay was packed into flumes (L × W × H: 1.8 × 0.5 × 0.1 m) and subjected to intensities of 60, 90, 120 mm h⁻¹ at gradients of 5, 10, and 16°. Air filter and tarp covers were used to vary impact energy and flow length. Results show that sediment is largely entrained by raindrop impact and transported by raindrop-impacted flow. Interrill erosion consists of two composite processes: raindrop-induced detachment/entrainment and raindrop-impacted flow transport. The former includes direct detachment by raindrop impact and ‘flow detachment’. The latter includes raindrop-driven and flow-driven transports. The proportions between the two transports vary with slope steepness, slope length, flow depth (or flow discharge), rainfall intensity, and sediment characteristics. Raindrop-driven transport is competent but inefficient, while the opposite is true for flow-driven transport. Because raindrop impact plays dual roles in detaching soil (and/or entraining sediment) and enhancing sediment transport, a drop energy factor must be included in interrill erosion models to adequately simulate the dual roles. More studies are required to derive a drop energy function that takes into consideration the rainfall energy dissipation by canopies of various plants under natural conditions.
Combined use of UAV-SfM surveys, soil particle tracking with RFID tags and a sediment connectivity index to study plot-scale sediment transport
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Plot-based study to evaluate raindrop detachment capacity on moss-dominated biocrusted slope under simulated rainfall with different intensities
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Biocrusts play a critical role in prevention of erosion, but little is known on the relationship between biocrust cover and raindrop detachment capacity at the slope scale. Evaluating the raindrop detachment capacity on biocrusted slope is essential for better knowledge of the rainfall-induced erosion of biocrusted slope. Thus, laboratory simulated rainfall experiments were conducted on plots (140 × 120 cm) representing moss-dominated biocrusted slopes to measure the amounts of raindrop detachment under a complete combination of different biocrust cover (0%, 20%, 40%, 50%, 60%, and 80%) and rainfall intensities (42, 60, 90, 120, and 150 mm h⁻¹) at 26.79% slope gradient with two replications. The results showed that the biocrust cover, rainfall intensity, and their interaction all significantly affected the raindrop detachment modulus (RDm). The RDm in biocrust plot was significantly lower than in bare soil plot under rain events with the same rainfall intensities. The lower biocrust cover or the larger rainfall intensities led to higher RDm. Reduction benefit of raindrop detachment modulus (RB-RDm) were greater than its corresponding biocrust cover values. When the biocrust cover increased from 20% to 40%, the increase range and growth trend of RDm decreased with increasing rainfall intensity. Our results indicated that the development of biocrusts on slope is an effective way of reducing raindrop detachment by protecting soil in their covered area and increasing flow depth. When moss-dominated biocrust cover reached 40%, the raindrop detachment capacity effectively weakened even under rain events with large rainfall intensities. These findings may conducive to offer a scientific guidance for soil erosion control in the Loess Plateau and in other arid and semiarid regions.
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Modelling the dynamics of seal formation and pore clogging in the soil and its effect on infiltration using membrane fouling models
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In the paper, we evaluated some of the prominent mathematical models derived from Darcy’s law used to describe filtration membrane fouling occurring during the clarification of turbid fluids. The fouling can occur by basic mechanisms like surface pore blocking, pore constriction/obstruction, caking, or their combination. The paper presents a novel application of these models to the infiltration of overland flow into the soil. The soil, as a porous medium, is assumed to be the filter. The soil infilling that occurs during structural seal formation is assimilated to the membrane fouling process, and the turbid fluid is the flow enriched in fine particles due to the illuviation of the soil particles detached by raindrop impact and overland flow. Explicit mathematical equations were derived for the dynamics of the free surface area for infiltration, the resistance of the infiltration porous medium, the infiltration rate, the cumulative infiltration volume and the saturated hydraulic conductivity. The fluid characteristics and the validation dataset were provided by the SERLAB (Soil Erosion LABoratory, 42°59′34′’N 12°17′27′’E, Italy) of the University of Perugia and derives from a sequence of rainfall-simulation experiments in a silty clay loam. The better fits were obtained by combining the models that simulate the basic mechanisms of the free surface pore area blocking and the increase in the medium resistance due to pore obstruction by infilling fine particles. Both processes occur during structural crust formation. As a model reproducing the fine particles infilling pores both at the surface and at the underneath layer could describe the behaviour of the infiltration data, the contribution of this process should be added in modelling the dynamics of structural seal formation and its effect on infiltration.

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Splash detachment: Runoff depth and soil cohesion

Summary

CATENA

CATENA

Parameters for describing soil detachment due to single waterdrop impact

Soil Science Society of America Journal

The mechanism of raindrop splash on soil surfaces

Soil Society of America Journal

Stima dell'erodibilità dei suoli mediante simulazione di pioggia in laboratorio. Nota I: Simulatore di pioggia

Annali Istituto Sperimentale Studio e Difesa del Suolo

Crusting and time-dependent rainwash mechanisms on loamy soils

Soil erosion studies. Part II: Detachment hazard by raindrop splash

Agricultural Engineering