Comparative evaluation of rainfall erosivity in the Rieti province, Central Italy, using empirical formulas and a stochastic rainfall generator

Abstract

Soil erosion caused by intense rainfall events is one of the major problems affecting agricultural and forest ecosystems. The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is probably the most adopted approach for rainfall erosivity estimation, but in order to be properly employed it needs high resolution rainfall data which are often unavailable. In this case, empirical formulas, employing aggregated rainfall data, are commonly used. In this work, we select 12 empirical formulas for the estimation of the USLE rainfall erosivity in order to assess their reliability. Moreover, we used a Stochastic Rainfall Generator (SRG) to simulate a long and high‐resolution rainfall time series with the aim of assessing its application to rainfall erosivity estimations. From the analysis, performed in the Rieti province of Central Italy, we identified three equations which seem to provide better results. Moreover, the use of the selected SRG seems promising and it could help in solving the problem of hydrological data scarcity and consequently guarantee major accuracy in soil erosion estimation.