El potencial erosivo de la lluvia en el Uruguay

Abstract

Two types of distribution of rainfall erosion potential established for Uruguay are reported in this paper. One involves geographic differences in the abiliy of the average annual rainfall to cause erosion. The other types involves location differences, only in the South, regarding the distribution of erosive rains within the year. The erosion potential of rainfall at different locations was measured by an erosion index which is based on the kinetic energy and maximum sustained intensity of each rainstorm. This index was mathematically evaluated from one recording raingage situated in Montevideo. For the additional rain-stations, a regression equation with a big correlation was employed, the same as used by the US Agricultural Research Service. The erosion-index values recorded on the iso-erodent map are the location values of the rainfall factor, R, in the universal soil loss equation. The index values found for Uruguay ranged from 240 to 600 in metric units. The new information provided by the iso-erodent map, related to our conditions, can greatly enhance the precision of field soil-los estimates in guiding farm planning of soil and water conservation.