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ISSN:2325-6192 (print)
ISSN:2325-6206 (online)
Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management
António Mendes Lopes (editor), Jiazhong Zhang(editor)
António Mendes Lopes (editor)

University of Porto, Portugal

Email: aml@fe.up.pt

Jiazhong Zhang (editor)

School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province 710049, China

Fax: +86 29 82668723 Email: jzzhang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

Some Metrological Limitations to Rain Impact Computation in Storm Erosivity as Defined in the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, Version 2 (RUSLE2)

Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management 4(1) (2016) 37--44 | DOI:10.5890/JEAM.2016.03.004

Marco Casazza

Department of Science and Technology, University ‘Parthenope’ of Naples, Centro Direzionale, Isola C4, 80143, Naples, Italy.

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Abstract

The theoretical and the instrumental metrological basis for computation of rainfall impact in storm erosivity as defined in the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, version 2 (RUSLE2) are considered. The present determination of rainfall erosivity is based on two factors: E, representing the rainfall kinetic energy, and I30, the maximum 30-minutes intensity for a given precipitation event. The present short review evidences some of the existing metrological limitations: (1) the non separation between the impact of falling rain and shallow flow of water; (2) the use of a non-universal semiempirical approach, (3) the absence of a clear model with respect to rain flow, runoff and soil wetting; (4) the use of a hybrid measure unit; (5) the intrinsic limitation of measuring technologies. The improvement of the existing parameter calculation techniques or a transition from a prevailing semi-empirical to a mainly physical-based approach would be desirable, even if this transformation shouldn’t affect the usability of the developed tools for practitioners.

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