Abstract
Soil erosion is an natural phenomenon. However accelerated soil erosion has caused many environmental problems. To reduce soil loss from a watershed, many management practices have been proposed worldwide. To develop proper and efficient soil erosion best management practices, soil erosion rates should be estimated spatially and temporarily. The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and USLE-based soil erosion and sediment modelling systems have been developed and tested in many countries. The Sediment Assessment Tool for Effective Erosion Control (SATEEC) system has been developed and enhanced to provide ease-of-use interface to the USLE users. However many researchers and decision makers have requested to enhance the SATEEC system for simulation of soil erosion and sediment reflecting effects of single storm event. Thus, the SATEEC R factors were estimated based on 5 day antecedent rainfall data. The SATEEC 2.1 daily R factor was applied to the study watershed and it was found that the R2 and EI values (0.776 and 0.776 for calibration and 0.927 and 0.911 for validation) with the daily R were greater than those (0.721 and 0.720 for calibration and 0.906 and 0.881 for validation) with monthly R, which was available in the SATEEC 2.0 system. As shown in this study, the SATEEC with daily R can be used to estimate soil erosion and sediment yield at a watershed scale with higher accuracy. Thus the SATEEC with daily R can be efficiently used to develop site-specific soil erosion best management practices based on spatial and temporal analysis of soil erosion and sediment yield at a daily-time step, which was not possible with USLE-based soil erosion modeling system.