Rainfall Characteristics of the Liudaogou Catchment on the Northern Loess Plateau of China

The objectives of this study were to understand the rainfall characteristics of the wind-water erosion crisscross region on the northern Loess Plateau, China, to provide basis for the studies on mitigation of soil erosion, estimation on surface water resources and local hydrological circle, etc. The Liudaogou Catchment with representative climatic and hydrologic conditions of wind-water erosion crisscross region at the northern Loess Plateau was chosen as the study area. Analysis of the rain intensity, duration and amount was performed for the period from May to October for five years (2006-2010). The maximum and average rain intensity of time intervals of 3 min, 5 min, 10 min, 30 min and 1 h were quantized. Rain intensity distribution of different time intervals (3 min, 5 min, 10 min, 30 min, 1h and 6 h) has been clarified to a certain degree. Rainfall events whose rainfall duration equal or less than 30 min accounted for approximately 50% of the total number of rainfall events. Rainfall event whose rainfall amount ≤ 1 mm accounted approximately 50% of annual mean rainfall events whereas their total rainfall only accounted for less than 7% of mean annual precipitation during 2006-2010. This study veritably described the main rainfall characteristics of wind-water erosion crisscross region on the northern Loess Plateau to a certain extent.