Return to HydroWeb HomepageISSN 1058-3912
Electronic journal of the International Association
for Environmental Hydrology
On the World Wide Web at http://www.hydroweb.com
JEH Volume 8 (2000), Paper 2, January 2000 Posted
January 21, 2000
MODELING SOIL EROSION USING EPIC SUPPORTED BY GIS, BOHEMIA, CZECH REPUBLIC
Sanjay Kumar Jain, National Institute of Hydrology,
Roorkee, India
F. Dolezal, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
ABSTRACT
The Environmental Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC), a complex
semi-empirical environmental model with distributed parameters, was used
to estimate water erosion on 18 fields of a small (1.42 km2)
agricultural catchment called Cernici in a foothills region of Central
Bohemia, Czech Republic. Some input data for EPIC (areas, elevations, lengths
and slopes) and the field-to-field sediment delivery ratios were prepared
using a Geographic Information System. Average erosion rates predicted
by EPIC were highest in May to September if the Uniform Soil Loss Equations
(USLE) was used. The MUSLE (modified USLE) and AOF (Onstead-Foster method)
also showed high erosion rates in December-January. The largest simulated
soil erosion rates were found on a few ploughed fields on which crop rotation
prone to erosion combined unfavorably with high field slopes and highly
erosive weather. A change of crop rotation helped reduce the erosion.
Reference: Jain, S. K. and F. Dolezal; Modeling Soil Erosion
Using EPIC Supported by GIS, Bohemia, Czech Republic, Journal of Environmental
Hydrology, Vol. 8, Paper 2, January 2000.
Sanjay K. Jain
National Institute of Hydrology
Jalvigyan Bhawan Roorkee
247 667 (U.P.)
India
E-mail: sanjay@nih.ernet.in