An overview of Brazilian experience on measuring runoff and soil loss rates

Authors: ANACHE, JAMIL - Universidad De Sao Paulo; SANCHES DE OLIVEIRA, PAULO - Universidad De Sao Paulo; WENDLAND, EDSON - Universidad De Sao Paulo; Flanagan, Dennis

Submitted to: Soil and Water Conservation Society
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/9/2016
Publication Date: 7/24/2016
Citation: Anache, J.A., Sanches De Oliveira, P.T., Wendland, E., Flanagan, D.C. 2016. An overview of Brazilian experience on measuring runoff and soil loss rates. Soil and Water Conservation Society, July 24-27, 2016, Louisville, Kentucky. 2016. USB.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Efforts have been made to determine soil erosion rates using runoff plots, mainly in the last century. In Brazil, the first experimental studies in plot-scale monitoring sites started in the 1940s. Thus, we aim to show an overview of plot-scale studies under natural rainfall over the country. We reviewed the ISI Web of Science, Scopus, SciELO, and Google Scholar databases to compile rainfall and soil loss under natural rainfall studies from scientific journal articles, conference papers, books, MSc thesis and PhD dissertations (grey science). The plot data studies have to meet the following requirements to be considered in the database: experimental plot data under natural rainfall; continuous monitoring data; and clear information about the experimental site: coordinates, plot description, land cover, and monitoring period. Our findings tell that the south and southeast regions of Brazil have the greatest number of runoff and soil loss monitoring sites under natural rainfall. In addition, the amount of plot-year is decreasing in the last 15 years. However, the number of published documents containing runoff and soil erosion experimental data is increasing. Lastly, more than 50% of the experimental studies have up to 2 years of monitored data.