Analysis of wind erosivity at synoptic stations of Kerman province using wind rose, storm rose and sand rose

Wind erosion is one of the most important land degradation aspects especially in arid and semi-arid regions such as Kerman province. Wind direction and speed are two important erosive factors affecting wind erosion and sediment yield. The purpose of this study was to analyze the erosive winds of the province in order to determine the direction of predominant winds and the status and the potential of wind erosion during different periods of 8 to 11 years.

In this study, wind anemometric data for 8-11 y periods were analyzed using 12 synoptic stations in Kerman province. For this purpose, the WR Plot View software was applied in order to analyze the anemometer data and draw wind roses and storm roses of the selected synoptic stations of the province. Moreover, the sand roses of the studied stations were plotted using the Sand Rose Graph 3 software, accordingly different sand drift potential and direction indices were derived.

The results of wind rose analysis generally indicated that the western and southwestern winds dominated in the western part of the province, whereas the northern winds were more frequent in the eastern part. Storm rose analysis showed that in most stations, the highest erosive winds were mainly blown from the west and south west directions, while at Bam and Shahdad stations the north and at Zarand the southwest and northeast winds were predominate. According to this analysis, the most frequent winds at the speed classes of ≤6.7, 6.7-7.7, and 7.7-9.8 m s-1 were allocated to Jiroft (94.9%), Sirjan (8.0%) and Kahnooj (12.0%) stations, respectively. Among all the stations, Rafsanjan with 10.9%, 5.0%, and 4.1% showed the most frequent winds at the higher speed classes of 9.8-11.8, 11.8-13.9, and ≥13.9 m s-1, respectively. The analysis of resultant drift direction (RDD) implied that sand transport for the western stations of the province was mainly toward east and northeast directions, for Zarand station was from northwest to southeast and for Shahdad and Bam stations was from north to south directions. The minimum amount of total drift potential (DPt) was found at Baft and Jirof stations by 398 and 400 v.u., respectively, while Rafsanjan station with 1665 v.u. experienced the highest value of this index. Except for Baft and Jiroft stations with moderate wind potential, the other stations showed high wind potentials. The analysis of uni-directional index (UDI) indicated that except for Jiroft and Zarand stations which had high variability with multi-directional winds, for the other stations moderate variation with bi-directional winds and oblique angle were observed.

It was concluded that although wind erosivity analysis gives valuable information on wind erosion situation and sediment transport, it is necessary to be considered and used the threshold velocity as well as soil erodibility databases in order to achieve a more accurate analysis of wind erosion in the province.