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Abstract:
This study shows the correlation between the WEPP erosion model and fingerprinting data gathered from agricultural and forested areas of the production zone of the Palouse River. The resulting data from this study compares the contributions of both agricultural and forested sites to total erosion in the Palouse River found from field-collected data to the WEPP-predicted contributions of the two areas. ... 79%, respectively, according to the WEPP model, and 87% and 13%, respectively, according to fingerprinting data.
Introduction:
Erosion is a major factor in water quality. Erosion can be defined as the detachment and transport of material. Erosion can occur both in the production zone of a watershed as well as in transit in a river or stream. In upland erosion, useful nutrients, vegetation cover, and organic matter are carried away with eroded topsoil (Trott and Singer, 1983). Erosion of topsoil causes the value of land to decrease. Human activities, such as irresponsible logging and farming, are not always the triggers of erosion in the watershed production zone; however, they greatly accelerate the erosion process (Sidle et al. ... In stream problems with erosion are directly related to the material that is eroded in the source area. ...
Engineers wish not to eliminate erosion altogether; rather they want to better understand it. ... Computer programs can be used to model erosion and its sources. ...
Computer models such as the WEPP Program can also be used to model erosion and sediment processes. The WEPP erosion model is an on-going simulation that is used to predict soil loss and sediment deposition (Flanagan & Nearing, 1995). The WEPP model incorporates weather generation, infiltration theory, hydrology, soil physics, plant science, hydraulics, and erosion mechanics into its model. ... The WEPP model uses all of these variables to compute soil loss along a slope. ...
Fingerprinting and the WEPP model are both very useful tools for engineers and scientists; however, they have never been used in unison to prove the effectiveness of each other. While fingerprinting has been a widely used technique for locating sediment sources, the WEPP model is a fairly new and innovative concept. The main objective of this research project is to establish a credible process that can be used to validate the WEPP program through field-testing, such as fingerprinting methods. ... The forested areas include 33 miles of roads, which lead to variations in erosion. ... Erosion-created rills were also observed at this site. ...
WEPP Erosion Model:
The computer model that the mass spectrometer data is to be compared to for validation is the USDA’s Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP). ... The WEPP program is an extremely advanced program. ... Like any computer model, the WEPP program makes many assumptions. For example, the WEPP model assumes that all material eroded from the uplands pass through a single outlet. ... WEPP also ignores the effects of channel erosion, which can sometimes be a detrimental assumption as this type of erosion can often contribute notable amounts of material to sedimentation processes. Another limitation of the WEPP program is the fact that it is a 5-year simulation model. ... 3
WEPP:
The WEPP erosion data is tabulated in Table 1.
Approximate Word count = 2609
Approximate Pages = 10.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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