Abstract
In the absence of natural rain, a rainfall simulator offers an excellent opportunity to characterize and correlate the raindrop parameters, which are essential in studying the soil erosivity potential. However, their estimation requires precise instrumentation, which is seldom available. The technique of physically based modeling through empirical and conceptual relationships helps to correlate these rain parameters. The present study engaged six nozzles of different capacities and laser precipitation monitor (LPM) in obtaining the empirical relationships between different erosivity parameters. The simulator was calibrated to simulate natural rainfall conditions in the laboratory, and the performance was evaluated based on rain granulometry, drop size distribution, terminal velocity, and kinetic energy of raindrops. Different linear and non-linear regression relationships were developed and tested statistically to correlate the pressure, median volume drop diameters (D50) of rain, the kinetic energy of raindrop per unit area per unit time (KEtime,), and kinetic energy expended per unit rain quantity (KEvol) with the rain intensity (I). The estimated KEtime and KEvol ranged from 10.384 to 572.273 Jm−2 h−1 and 0.57 to 17.51 Jm−2 mm−1, respectively, comparable to the natural rain at specified rain intensities. The present study also developed a generalized exponential equation to correlate D50–I and a power law-based equation for erosivity and rainfall depth. The adequacy of the developed relationships was verified with MAE, MSE, and RMSE indicating the significance of the relationship. The developed correlations shall be helpful in the estimation of various rainfall parameters with the simple measurement of the most common parameters such as rain intensity and depth. The results of the present study will enable researchers to develop events-scale physically based models on soil erosion.
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Data availability
Some or all data, models, or codes that support the findings of this study are available with the corresponding author and can be made available upon reasonable request. The data available with us include: nozzle-wise simulated rainfall data recorded by LPM; record of observed data for estimation of uniformity coefficients and DSD; raindrop parameters viz., rainfall amount, rainfall intensity, DSD, drop velocity, rainfall depth, event-wise cumulative rainfall, etc.); minute-to-minute simulated rainfall data during experimentation registered by tipping bucket rain gauge and LPM and all supporting data related to the graphical representations from the present study.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the Department of Water Resources Development and Management, IIT Roorkee, for providing the required facilities to carry out this experimental work. The authors acknowledge the helpful comments received from the anonymous reviewer.
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Jadhao, V.G., Pandey, A. & Mishra, S.K. Modeling of rain erosivity employing simulated rainfall and laser precipitation monitor. Model. Earth Syst. Environ. 9, 4477–4492 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-023-01727-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-023-01727-0