Comparison of empirical models to estimate soil erosion and sediment yield in micro catchments

Abstract

Assessment of sediment yield in soil conservation and watershed Project and implementation plan for water and soil resources management is so important. Regarding to somewhere that doesn’t have enough information and statistical data such as upper river branches, Empirical models should be used to estimate erosion and sediment yield. However the efficiency and usage of these models before calibration isn’t clear. In this research, the measurement of erosion and sediment yield of 10 basins upstream of reservoirshas been estimated by RUSLE and MPSIAC empirical models.In order to compare means between measured and estimated datat-test method was applied.Theresults indicated no significant differences between means of measured and estimated sediment yield in MPSAIC model in 5% level. In contrast, T-test showed contrary results in RUSLE model. Then the applicability and priority of two models were examined by statistical methodssuch as MAE and MBE methods. By regarding to accuracy and precision, MPSIAC model placed in first priorityto estimate soil erosion and sediment yield and has minimum value of MAE=0.79 and MBE = -0.59.

Keywords

• Erosion-Sediment models
• MPSIAC
• RUSLE
• Micro Catchments