Comparative Analysis of Effect of Rainfall Intensity and Experimental Plot Slope on Raindrop Impact Induced Erosion (RIIE)

Splash detachment and transport of soil particles by raindrops impact on the soil surface are the initiating mechanisms of water erosion. However, mechanistical analysis of different effective factors has been less taken into account. The present study has been therefore formulated for comparative analysis of effective intensities and slopes on Raindrop Impact Induced Erosion (RIIE) components in laboratory scale for a sandy clay loam soil. Towards this attempt, a total of 81 rainfall simulation experiments were conducted in a set of 1 × 6 m plot with varying slopes of 5, 15 and 25% using current situation in the region and in three replications and simulated rainfall intensities of 30, 60, and 90 mm h-1 using region IDF. The experiments were adopted using rainfall simulation system and upward and downward Morgan’s splash cups situated at upper, middle and lower part of the plot. Results indicated that all study variables viz. total and net splash and upward and downward splash were significantly (p ≤ 0.01) influenced by rainfall intensity and cups locality but net splash was not statistically influenced (p ≥ 0.13) by spatial variation of cups. In addition, the results showed that slope did not affect any study variables (p ≥ 0.11) except the net splash (p ≤ 0.01).