Occurrence of Erosion-Effective Rain in the Brno Area

• Main Authors: Silvie Kozlovská, František Toman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Mendel University Press 2016-01-01
• Series: Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis
• Subjects: Rainfall erosivity factor (R-factor); rainfall intensity; water erosion; kinetic energy of rain; dangerous erosion rainfall; rain gauge stations
• Online Access: https://acta.mendelu.cz/64/5/1583/

Due to the growing awareness of the extent of degradation of agricultural soils as a result of water erosion, increased attention is paid to the establishing of effective erosion control measures based on reliable and timely input data. When determining the vulnerability of farmland to water erosion, the determining factor is erosively dangerous rains, which are defined as totals over 12.5 mm and intensities of more than 24 mm.h-1. This paper analyses the dangerous erosion rainfalls using data on rainfall intensities of precipitation monitoring network of the company Brněnské vodovody a kanalizace, a.s. (BVK) in the city of Brno. At first, we have set up 14 rain gauge stations distributed over an area of approximately 105 km2 and set basic indicators of individual rainfall episodes. Then we have analysed their maximum 30-minute intensity, kinetic energy and then determined the factor of erosion efficiency. We have found out a significant spatial variability of these variables throughout the area of the city of Brno. The R-factor analysis revealed that the average annual values of R-factor were the highest in the south-eastern part of the city of Brno while the least dangerous erosion rainfalls occurred in the west.