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Effect of Rainfall Regime and Slope on Runoff in a Gullied Loess Region on the Loess Plateau in China

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Abstract

Runoff was measured from seven plots with different slopes nested in Tuanshangou catchment on the Loess Plateau to study effect of slopes on runoff in relation to rainfall regimes. Based on nine years of field observation and K-mean clusters, 84 rainfall events were grouped into three rainfall regimes. Rainfall regime A is the group of events with strong rainfall intensity, high frequency, and short duration. Rainfall regime C consists of events with low intensity, long duration, and infrequent occurrence. Rainfall regime B is the aggregation of events of medium intensity and medium duration, and less frequent occurrence. The following results were found: (1) Different from traditional studies, runoff coefficient neither decreased nor increased, but presented peak value on the slope surfaces; (2) For individual plot, runoff coefficients induced by rainfall regime A were the highest, and those induced by rainfall regime C were the lowest; Downslope, the runoff coefficients induced by three rainfall regimes presented the same changing trend, although the peak value induced by regime A occurred on a shorter slope length compared to those by regime B and C; (3) Scale effect on runoff induced by rainfall regime A was the least, and that induced by rainfall regime C was the largest. These results can be explained by the interactions of crusting, soil moisture content, slope length and gradient, and erosion units, etc., in the context of different rainfall regimes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40635027, 30671721) and the Innovation Project of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (066U0104SZ) for their financial support of this work. Special thanks are owed to two anonymous reviewers for their fruitful suggestions to the improvement of the manscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    H. Y. Fang, Q. G. Cai & H. Chen

  2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    H. Y. Fang

  3. Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research for Sustainable Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, 264003, China

    Q. Y. Li

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  1. H. Y. Fang
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  2. Q. G. Cai
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Correspondence to Q. G. Cai.

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Fang, H.Y., Cai, Q.G., Chen, H. et al. Effect of Rainfall Regime and Slope on Runoff in a Gullied Loess Region on the Loess Plateau in China. Environmental Management 42, 402–411 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-008-9122-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-008-9122-6

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