An assessment of soil water erosion in the Myjava hill land: The application of a physically-based erosion model

Abstract

The scope of this study is an evaluation of potential soil water erosion using the physically-based erosion model, EROSION-3D. This model is event-based and calculates soil water erosion during an actual measured rainfall event. The calculations of the erosion model take advantage of a digital elevation model, precipitation and soil parameters, which are established in a specific parameter catalogue. The soil water erosion was modeled in two small catchments in the Myjava Hill Land (Slovakia), using 9 soil moisture scenarios and two different crops on arable areas. When considering the last 35 years of rainfall records at the Myjava meteorological station, three storm rainfall events were applied in the modeling. The results were statistically analyzed to figure out the differences between the model's functional possibilities; the modeling under the various scenarios proved a strong interaction between the values of the input factors and the results of the soil erosion.