Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Scientific Board, Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, Khorasan, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, Oroumieh University, Iran
3 Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, Khorasan, Iran
Abstract
The fact that there are so many erosion models makes it necessary to critically select one of them as all have some limitations. Models are formulations of processes and logics as represented by the modeler. The formulations may be representations of either simple processes or complicated ones as the modeler deems necessary to solve a specific problem. These variables must be derived by a procedure of calibration for a specific case. The Soil erosion model of Morgan, Morgan and Finny (1982) from a large list of soil erosion models, have been applied to test the validity of the model in Sanganeh research station, Mashhad, Iran. After a field survey, plots with sheet erosion, were selected and their data was collected. Rainfall, slope and soil data were derived from station archive, vegetation cover and root depths were determined from field observations and some other parameters were tested on site. Soil loss was calculated by using overland flow for each plot after each rainfall and the measured records were compared with model estimations. The results show that in most plots, predictions deviated from the observations and in 28.21% of plots the results seem acceptable. The final result of present research shows that the model performs reasonably well for plots with lower density of vegetation cover (less than 20%), steep area with more than 40 percent, and soil depths of less than 10 centimeter.
Keywords
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