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Title: UNIVERSAL APPLICATION OF WEPS

Author
item Skidmore, Edward

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/1/2004
Publication Date: 7/4/2004
Citation: Skidmore, E.L. 2004. Universal application of WEPS. In: Conserving Soil and Water for Society: Sharing Solutions. 13th International Soil Conservation Organization Conference, 4-8 July 2004, Brisbane Australia. p.67.

Interpretive Summary: Skidmore, E.L. 2004. Universal application of WEPS. In: Conserving Soil and Water for Society: Sharing Solutions. 13th International Soil Consrvation Organization Conference. p.67.

Technical Abstract: The Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS) was developed to improve wind erosion prediction technology for sustaining agriculture, protecting the environment, and conserving the natural resources against the ravages of wind erosion. This emerging process-based technology includes the capability to simulate weather, the field soil and crop conditions and wind erosion on a daily basis. It provides new capabilities for assessing plant damage, calculating suspension loss, and estimating pm-10 emissions from the field. During development the design of WEPS was guided by a primary customer, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Consequently, NRCS played a major role in developing some of the supporting data bases. The climate data base for supporting weather simulation was created from extensive weather summaries compiled by the US National Climate Data Center. These resource data bases are often not readily available to support using WEPS in all parts of the world. Therefore the intent of this presentation is to give a brief overview of WEPS then suggest approaches to create supportive data bases and/or use WEPS with reduced functionality. By using EROSION standalone, without supporting submodels, most the of the input variables can be estimated from field observations and weather data from a nearby weather station. Examples will be presented for using WEPS outside of the US and with less than complete data bases. WEPS being a process-based model is applicable for prediction of wind erosion and conservation planning outside the regions where it was developed.