Water 2016, 8(4), 119; https://doi.org/10.3390/w8040119
Monthly Rainfall Erosivity: Conversion Factors for Different Time Resolutions and Regional Assessments
Panos Panagos 1,*
, Pasquale Borrelli 1, Jonathan Spinoni 1, Cristiano Ballabio 1, Katrin Meusburger 2, Santiago Beguería 3, Andreas Klik 4, Silas Michaelides 5, Sašo Petan 6, Michaela Hrabalíková 7, Preben Olsen 8, Juha Aalto 9, Mónika Lakatos 10, Anna Rymszewicz 11, Alexandru Dumitrescu 12, Melita Perčec Tadić 13, Nazzareno Diodato 14, Julia Kostalova 15, Svetla Rousseva 16, Kazimierz Banasik 17 and Christine Alewell 2
, Pasquale Borrelli 1, Jonathan Spinoni 1, Cristiano Ballabio 1, Katrin Meusburger 2, Santiago Beguería 3, Andreas Klik 4, Silas Michaelides 5, Sašo Petan 6, Michaela Hrabalíková 7, Preben Olsen 8, Juha Aalto 9, Mónika Lakatos 10, Anna Rymszewicz 11, Alexandru Dumitrescu 12, Melita Perčec Tadić 13, Nazzareno Diodato 14, Julia Kostalova 15, Svetla Rousseva 16, Kazimierz Banasik 17 and Christine Alewell 21
European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Via E. Fermi 2749, I-21027 Ispra (VA), Italy
2
Environmental Geosciences, University of Basel, Bernoullistrasse 30, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
3
Estación Experimental de Aula Dei, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (EEAD-CSIC), 50009, Zaragoza, Spain
4
Institute of Hydraulics and Rural Water Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, AT-1190 Vienna, Austria
5
The Cyprus Institute, 20 Konstantinou Kavafi Street, CY-2121 Nicosia, Cyprus
6
Slovenian Environment Agency, Hydrology and State of Environment Office, Cesta 4. julija 67, SI-8270 Krško, Slovenia
7
Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 16521 Prague, Czech Republic
8
Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Blichers Alle 20, 8830 Tjele, Denmark
9
Finish Meteorological Institute, P.O Box 503, FI-00101 Helsinki, Finland
10
Hungarian Meteorological Service, Kitaibel Pál street 1, HU-1024, Budapest, Hungary
11
UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
12
Department of Climatology, National Meteorological Administration, Bucuresti-Ploiesti 97, RO-013686, Bucharest, Romania
13
Meteorological and Hydrological Service, Grič 3, HR-10000, Zagreb, Croatia
14
Met European Research Observatory, 82100 Benevento, Italy
15
Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, Climatological service Jeséniova 17, SK-83315 Bratislava, Slovakia
16
Institute of Soil Science, Agrotechnologies and Plant Protection N. Poushkarov, Shosse Bankya Str. No7, BG-1336, Sofia, Bulgaria
17
Warsaw University of Life Sciences, ul. Nowoursynowska 166, Warsaw PL-02-787, Poland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Ataur Rahman
Received: 21 January 2016 / Revised: 14 March 2016 / Accepted: 22 March 2016 / Published: 26 March 2016
Abstract
As a follow up and an advancement of the recently published Rainfall Erosivity Database at European Scale (REDES) and the respective mean annual R-factor map, the monthly aspect of rainfall erosivity has been added to REDES. Rainfall erosivity is crucial to be considered at a monthly resolution, for the optimization of land management (seasonal variation of vegetation cover and agricultural support practices) as well as natural hazard protection (landslides and flood prediction). We expanded REDES by 140 rainfall stations, thus covering areas where monthly R-factor values were missing (Slovakia, Poland) or former data density was not satisfactory (Austria, France, and Spain). The different time resolutions (from 5 to 60 min) of high temporal data require a conversion of monthly R-factor based on a pool of stations with available data at all time resolutions. Because the conversion factors show smaller monthly variability in winter (January: 1.54) than in summer (August: 2.13), applying conversion factors on a monthly basis is suggested. The estimated monthly conversion factors allow transferring the R-factor to the desired time resolution at a European scale. The June to September period contributes to 53% of the annual rainfall erosivity in Europe, with different spatial and temporal patterns depending on the region. The study also investigated the heterogeneous seasonal patterns in different regions of Europe: on average, the Northern and Central European countries exhibit the largest R-factor values in summer, while the Southern European countries do so from October to January. In almost all countries (excluding Ireland, United Kingdom and North France), the seasonal variability of rainfall erosivity is high. Very few areas (mainly located in Spain and France) show the largest from February to April. The average monthly erosivity density is very large in August (1.67) and July (1.63), while very small in January and February (0.37). This study addresses the need to develop monthly calibration factors for seasonal estimation of rainfall erosivity and presents the spatial patterns of monthly rainfall erosivity in European Union and Switzerland. Moreover, the study presents the regions and seasons under threat of rainfall erosivity. View Full-TextKeywords:
REDES; R-factor; seasonal rainfall intensity; modeling; soil erosion; monthly erosion rate
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Panagos, P.; Borrelli, P.; Spinoni, J.; Ballabio, C.; Meusburger, K.; Beguería, S.; Klik, A.; Michaelides, S.; Petan, S.; Hrabalíková, M.; Olsen, P.; Aalto, J.; Lakatos, M.; Rymszewicz, A.; Dumitrescu, A.; Perčec Tadić, M.; Diodato, N.; Kostalova, J.; Rousseva, S.; Banasik, K.; Alewell, C. Monthly Rainfall Erosivity: Conversion Factors for Different Time Resolutions and Regional Assessments. Water 2016, 8, 119.
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