EFFICIENCY OF INTERO MODEL TO PREDICT SOIL EROSION INTENSITY AND SEDIMENT YIELD IN KHAMSAN REPRESENTATIVE WATERSHED (WEST OF IRAN)

Abstract

Application of empirical models is inevitable because of the complexity of process,features, spatial and temporal variation of soil erosion and non-existence or lack ofassociated data. In the present study, maximum outflow and soil erosion intensitywere predicted for Khamsan representative watershed in West of Iran, using IntEromodel. The results of production of erosion material in the river basin (W year),coefficient of the deposit retention (Ru) and real soil losses (G year) were thencompared with the measured soil erosion, SDR and sediment yield data inKhamsan watershed. The intensity of the erosion process were medium in studiedwatershed. The predicted data were compared with the measured sediment yield ofstudied watershed and verified the acceptable results of the IntEro model inKhamsan representative watershed. The results showed that the peak flow is 27.50m3s-1 for a return period of 100 years. The value of Z coefficient of 0.876 indicatesthat the river basin belongs to the second destruction category out of five. Thecalculated net soil loss from the river basin was 12263.44 m3 per year, specific282.81 m3km-2 per year. The strength of the erosion process is strong, andaccording to the erosion type, it is surface erosion.