The Effects of Geological Unit's Characteristics and Slope Gradient on Runoff and Sediment Yield Using Rainfall Simulator (Case study: Senobar Watershed, Torbat-e-Heydarieh)

Characteristics of stones forming the earth's surface contribute significantly to environmental changes such as soil erosion and movements of soil particles. This study seeks to investigate the main and reciprocal effects of geological units and slope gradient on runoff and sediment production in Senobar watershed using rainfall simulator. To this aim, the geological map was created in Arc GIS 10 software and three dominant units i.e. green tuff, sandstone, marl (Et), Orbitolina Limestone (Kl) and Conglomerate, Sand stone (Ngcs) were identified. Besides, to study the effect of slope gradient, the slope map was provided in three classes: 0-10, 10-30 and more than 30%. Then, the rainfall intensity equal to 0.9 mm min-1 (10- years return period) was created by rainfall simulator. Analysis of variance showed significant differences between geological units for runoff, sediment yield and sediment concentration at 5% significant level. It was found out that there is significant difference between different slope gradients in runoff and sediment production; however, there was no significant difference regarding sediment concentration. The results of interaction between geological units and slope gradient for runoff volume was significant at the 95% level of confidence but regarding sediment yield and sediment concentration interaction effects were not significant. Generally, it was found that the type of geological units and slope of the study area impacted on soil erosion process. Also, the impressibility of runoff variable was more than that of the sediment.