The influence of rainfall interception on the erosive power of raindrops under the birch tree

Zore, Anita (author), Bezak, Nejc (author), Šraj, Mojca (author)

Healthy soils are one of the key priorities of the EU Soil Strategy, and soil erosion can present a threat to soils around the world. Rainfall erosivity is the main driver of soil erosion by water. Rainfall interception by vegetation can reduce the erosive power of raindrops, and consequently measures involving vegetation can mitigate soil erosion losses. In this study, the effect of rainfall interception on the erosive power of raindrops under the birch tree in an urban park in the city of Ljubljana is investigated. More than one year of measurements of drop-size distribution using two optical disdrometers placed above and below the birch tree canopy were used to investigate the impact of rainfall interception on the erosive power of raindrops. The number of drops, fall velocity, and drop diameter were, on average smaller below the canopy in comparison to the measurements above the canopy for 20%, 7% and 27%, respectively. This also resulted in a reduction in the rainfall kinetic energy (3% and 30% in the leafless and leafed periods, respectively) and rainfall erosivity (21% and 50% for the leafless and leafed periods, respectively). The results demonstrate that rainfall interception has a significant seasonal influence on the erosive power of raindrops. Therefore, vegetation characteristics should be considered as time-varying rather than constant parameters in soil erosion modelling studies.

• Language: English
• Keywords: rainfall interception, throughfall, drop-size distribution, DSD, rainfall erosivity, optical disdrometer, kinetic energy
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FGG - Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2022
• Number of pages: 13 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 613, pt. B, art. 128478
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-142453
• UDC: 556.1
• ISSN on article: 0022-1694
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128478
• COBISS.SI-ID: 123536131
• Publication date in RUL: 10.11.2022

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of hydrology
• Shortened title: J. hydrol.
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0022-1694
• COBISS.SI-ID: 25750784

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: prestrezanje padavin, prepuščene padavine, porazdelitev velikosti kapljic, erozivnost padavin