The thresholds of sediment-generating rainfall from hillslope to watershed scales in the Loess Plateau, China

Abstract

Obtaining practical thresholds for erosive rainfall plays a crucial role in calculating rainfall erosivity and predicting water erosion. Nevertheless, the study of thresholds on subwatershed and watershed scales remains scarce. Given this, we presented the critical rainfall that generated the outflows of subwatersheds and watersheds as the threshold of sediment-generating rainfall. On the basis of the observation of twelve nested topographical units at the Peijiamaogou watershed in the Loess Plateau of China, we fitted regression relationships between rainfall indexes (rainfall amount, maximum 30-min intensity, maximum 60-min intensity, rainfall amount multiply maximum 30-min intensity, and rainfall amount multiply maximum 60-min intensity) and the proportion of cumulative sediment yield to the total sediment yield. We determined the thresholds of sediment-generating rainfall and explored the variabilities of thresholds across different spatial scales. Moreover, the covering area proportion (CAP) with rainfall indexes higher than the thresholds was also employed as thresholds at the subwatershed and watershed scales. The thresholds of CAP for P and I30 were 50.5% and 47.6% at the subwatershed scale, while 31.0% and 30.3% at the watershed scale. The thresholds of P and I30 at the subwatershed scale were higher than those of hillslope scale, while the threshold of I30 at the watershed scale was smaller compared to the other scales. In general, I30 was viewed as the best threshold among single rainfall indexes across different spatial scales, while P was not recommended as a practical threshold. This study can improve the prediction accuracy of water erosion across different spatial scales and develop the spatial scale effect of sediment yield in the loess hilly areas.