Rainfall erosivity mapping in Iran

Rainfall erosivity as one of the major factors of soil erosion is expressed as indexes. The objective of this study is determining the appropriate rainfall erosivity index in Iran and generalizes it by its estimation from more readily available indexes to stations without rainfall intensity data and to determine the most accurate interpolation method for preparation of its map. For this reason, necessary data were collected from seven soil erosion research plots in Western Azerbyjan, Khorasan Razavi, Zanjan, Semnan, Mazandaran, Markazi, and Yazd provinces, respectively. The rainfall intensities were recorded, as was the sediment yield associated with storm events, and 64 different erosivity indices based on rainfall intensity were computed for these soil erosion research stations. Our founding shows that were the best correlated with sediment than other erosivity index. Further, rainfall erosivity indices, based on the amount of rainfall, were also computed for all soil erosion research plots and synoptic and climatic stations. The results showed that the modified Fournier index had a significant correlation with After normalizing the primary data, semi-variograms were determined and the best model was obtained. Then, different interpolation methods were compared and spline was chosen for drawing the rainfall erosivity map. The output map showed a decreasing trend from west and north to east and south of the country and this trend was correlated with climatic change from humid to semiarid regions.