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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #64151
Title: WEPP HILLSLOPE AND EROSION TECHNOLOGY

Author
item Flanagan, Dennis
item Nearing, Mark
item Laflen, John
item Foster, George
item Lane, Leonard

Submitted to: Soil Conservation and Water Quality Symposium Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/11/1995
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The WEPP model is a continuous simulation, distributed parameter, erosion prediction model, for use on personal computers. Results of model simulations include not only average annual estimates of soil loss, but also spatial and temporal predictions of soil detachment and sediment deposition down hillslope profiles. The model also predicts sediment losses and particle characteristics of the sediment. This abstract will briefly describe two of the most important WEPP hillslope model components: hydrology and erosion. The hydrology component of WEPP includes climate generation, irrigation, winter processes, infiltration, surface depressional storage, surface runoff, subsurface percolation, evapotranspiration, subsurface drainage, and an overall water balance. The hydrology component computes the effective rainfall intensity rate, the peak runoff rate, and the durations associated with these two rates for use in the erosion component. The erosion component of the WEPP hillslope model uses a steady-state sediment continuity equation to estimate sediment movement down a hillslope. The hillslope is divided into rill (small concentrated flow paths) and interrill (regions between rills) areas. In the continuity equation, the change in sediment load with distance down slope in a rill is equal to the sum of the sediment delivery rate laterally from the interrill regions plus the detachment or deposition rate in the rill.