Soil erosion is a global problem that tends to become more extreme on the background of climate change. Rainfall is one the main drivers of soil erosion. One of the best indicators of the potential erosion risks is the rainfall-runoff erosivity factor (R) of the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE). Shida Kartli is one of the main agrarian regions in the country and research on soil erosion has the great importance. The purpose of this study is to assess monthly variations of rainfall erosivity in Shida Kartli region from the RUSLE R-factor, based on the best available datasets. The rainfall erosivity index for a rainfall event, EI30, is calculated from the total kinetic energy and maximum 30 min intensity of individual events. However, these data are unavailable in study region since 1990. Alternative approaches are used for the calculation of EI30 in this paper. Soil erosion rate is sufficiently high in eastern Georgia. According to the results of previous studies, two maximums of R-factor are calibrated in May and July in Shida Kartli. A set of equations is presented for calculating monthly and annual R factor values based on daily precipitation data for Shida Kartli in the current study. Data have been collected from 2 meteorological stations for the period from January 1990 through December 2016. Precipitation time series for both stations included 27 years. Rainfall-runoff factor (R) for each month (Rmonth) of study period has been determined and seasons with high rainfall erosivity were established for both stations.
Published in |
Earth Sciences (Volume 6, Issue 5-1)
This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenge for Geography: Landscape Dimensions of Sustainable Development |
DOI | 10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.23 |
Page(s) | 87-92 |
Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Soil Erosion, Precipitation, Rainfall, Erosivity, Monthly Time Step
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APA Style
Mariam Tsitsagi, Ana Berdzenishvili, Ketevan Gogidze. (2017). Monthly Variations of Rainfall Erosivity (R factor) in Shida Kartli, Georgia. Earth Sciences, 6(5-1), 87-92. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.23
ACS Style
Mariam Tsitsagi; Ana Berdzenishvili; Ketevan Gogidze. Monthly Variations of Rainfall Erosivity (R factor) in Shida Kartli, Georgia. Earth Sci. 2017, 6(5-1), 87-92. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.23
@article{10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.23, author = {Mariam Tsitsagi and Ana Berdzenishvili and Ketevan Gogidze}, title = {Monthly Variations of Rainfall Erosivity (R factor) in Shida Kartli, Georgia}, journal = {Earth Sciences}, volume = {6}, number = {5-1}, pages = {87-92}, doi = {10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.23}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.23}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.earth.s.2017060501.23}, abstract = {Soil erosion is a global problem that tends to become more extreme on the background of climate change. Rainfall is one the main drivers of soil erosion. One of the best indicators of the potential erosion risks is the rainfall-runoff erosivity factor (R) of the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE). Shida Kartli is one of the main agrarian regions in the country and research on soil erosion has the great importance. The purpose of this study is to assess monthly variations of rainfall erosivity in Shida Kartli region from the RUSLE R-factor, based on the best available datasets. The rainfall erosivity index for a rainfall event, EI30, is calculated from the total kinetic energy and maximum 30 min intensity of individual events. However, these data are unavailable in study region since 1990. Alternative approaches are used for the calculation of EI30 in this paper. Soil erosion rate is sufficiently high in eastern Georgia. According to the results of previous studies, two maximums of R-factor are calibrated in May and July in Shida Kartli. A set of equations is presented for calculating monthly and annual R factor values based on daily precipitation data for Shida Kartli in the current study. Data have been collected from 2 meteorological stations for the period from January 1990 through December 2016. Precipitation time series for both stations included 27 years. Rainfall-runoff factor (R) for each month (Rmonth) of study period has been determined and seasons with high rainfall erosivity were established for both stations.}, year = {2017} }
TY - JOUR T1 - Monthly Variations of Rainfall Erosivity (R factor) in Shida Kartli, Georgia AU - Mariam Tsitsagi AU - Ana Berdzenishvili AU - Ketevan Gogidze Y1 - 2017/08/21 PY - 2017 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.23 DO - 10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.23 T2 - Earth Sciences JF - Earth Sciences JO - Earth Sciences SP - 87 EP - 92 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-5982 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.23 AB - Soil erosion is a global problem that tends to become more extreme on the background of climate change. Rainfall is one the main drivers of soil erosion. One of the best indicators of the potential erosion risks is the rainfall-runoff erosivity factor (R) of the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE). Shida Kartli is one of the main agrarian regions in the country and research on soil erosion has the great importance. The purpose of this study is to assess monthly variations of rainfall erosivity in Shida Kartli region from the RUSLE R-factor, based on the best available datasets. The rainfall erosivity index for a rainfall event, EI30, is calculated from the total kinetic energy and maximum 30 min intensity of individual events. However, these data are unavailable in study region since 1990. Alternative approaches are used for the calculation of EI30 in this paper. Soil erosion rate is sufficiently high in eastern Georgia. According to the results of previous studies, two maximums of R-factor are calibrated in May and July in Shida Kartli. A set of equations is presented for calculating monthly and annual R factor values based on daily precipitation data for Shida Kartli in the current study. Data have been collected from 2 meteorological stations for the period from January 1990 through December 2016. Precipitation time series for both stations included 27 years. Rainfall-runoff factor (R) for each month (Rmonth) of study period has been determined and seasons with high rainfall erosivity were established for both stations. VL - 6 IS - 5-1 ER -