Evaluation of WEPP and EPM for improved predictions of soil erosion in mountainous watersheds: A case study of Kangir Ri
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Evaluation of WEPP and EPM for improved predictions of soil erosion in mountainous watersheds: A case study of Kangir River basin, Iran Mehdi Ahmadi1 · Masoud Minaei2 · Omid Ebrahimi1 · Mehdi Nikseresht3 Received: 26 March 2020 / Accepted: 13 May 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract In the current study, WEPP and EPM models were used to estimate the amount of soil erosion and sediment in the basin of Kangir. The required data for implementation of the WEPP model were prepared in six categories including soil, climate, management, slope, drainage and reservoir based on which we took the information needed to build soil and management files. Some information such as texture, cation exchange capacity, organic matter, sand content, effective hydraulic flow and critical shear stress was used. After production of all the layers, the WEPP model was implemented using the GEOWEPP software. In this software, erosion and sediment amounts were estimated by three methods: domain, watershed and flow path methods. In the Kangir River watershed, the sediment content was 7.64 t/ha/year, 6.13 t/ha/year and 11.87 t/ha/year. Thus, the two methods of domain 7.64 t/ha/year and flow path 11.83 t/ha/year were closer to the observed sediment 10.5. Based on the EPM model, the sedimentation coefficient of the Kangir basin was 0.81. The results of the research indicate the high erodibility rate of the watershed basin. The erosion-sensitive units were located in the western and southwestern regions of the basin. In the EPM model, the erosion rate (Z) was 0.6 indicating moderate to high erodibility rate in the watershed. Furthermore, the highest erosion rate was in the western and southwestern parts of the watershed. Finally, the results of estimating soil erosion and sediment production in the watershed of Kangir illustrated that the WEPP model has a more accurate estimation of soil erosion and sediment production, and in this model, the flow path method used to estimate the amount of soil erosion and sediment production was close to the observed sediment at the hydrometric station. Keywords Soil erosion · Mountainous watersheds · Sediment yield · WEPP · EPM · Kangir River basin
Introduction
* Mehdi Ahmadi [email protected] Masoud Minaei [email protected] Omid Ebrahimi [email protected] Mehdi Nikseresht [email protected] 1
Department of Geomorphology, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Management, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
2
Department of Geography, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
3
Department of Geography, Faculty of Human Science, University of Payame Noor, Tehran, Iran
Soil erosion and sediment production have a great impact on reducing soil fertility and waste and also lead to the filling of the reservoirs of dams. This destruction of the environment is as a result of human pressure on land use which has now become a major global problem (Alam 2018; Erlich 1988; Wilson 1992). Due to the high rate of population
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