Influence of the soil slope and kinetic energy of simulated precipitation in the interrill erosion process

The emphasis in research today has been shifted from empirical models to process-based models. However, many of the fundamental erosion processes are not yet well understood or reliably predictable. Erosion has been divided into interrill and rill components. Interrill erosion consists of soil particle detachment by raindrop impact and the transport of particles by splash and shallow overland flow. The objective of this paper was to evaluate both the effect of the kinetic energy of the precipitation and that of the slope on soil loss for a Red-Yellow Latosol. Four values of kinetic energy (495, 832, 1151, and 1541 J m(-2)) and five soil box slopes (2, 6, 10, 14, and 18%) were used. The soil used was previously saturated. A regression equation was formulated relating the soil loss with the soil slope and kinetic energy. The results show that the accumulated soil loss over time tended towards linearity. Consequently, the rate of soil loss remained approximately constant over time. The accumulated soil loss increased with the increase of the soil slope and of the kinetic energy, but the slope had a less significant effect on soil loss than had the kinetic energy.