Mechanism of Rainfall Factors Affecting Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield under Different Rainfall Intensities
YUAN Siyu
CAO Dongyue
CAO Zhi
Abstract：To reveal the intrinsic driving mechanism of rainfall microphysical factors on soil erosion and sediment yield under different rainfall intensities,this paper employed a high-precision artificial rainfall simulation system.Experiments were conducted on typical loessial soil in the Chinese Loess Plateau,with three rainfall intensity gradients of 30,60,and 90 mm/h set on a 15° bare slope.The micro-characteristics of rainfall and the entire process of erosion and sediment yield were monitored simultaneously.The results indicate that rainfall kinetic energy increases nonlinearly with rainfall intensity and serves as a more fundamental erosion-driving factor than rainfall intensity.The linear relationship between total sediment yield and total rainfall kinetic energy is excellent(R²=0.97),significantly superior to the power function relationship with rainfall intensity(R²=0.88).This study quantitatively confirms that rainfall kinetic energy is a more essential and direct driver of erosion than rainfall intensity,providing important theoretical support and parameterization direction for improving soil erosion physical models and enhancing their predictive accuracy.
Keywords：soil erosionrainfall intensityrainfall kinetic energysediment yieldartificial rainfall simulation
Publication Date：2026-06-20
Online Publishing Date：2026-09-16(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 25-30 )