• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 2023

Interrill erosion dominates in forest areas, and the erosion rate in surface-disturbed areas is significantly increased by the development and expansion of rill. In this study, soil erosion experiments using simulated rainfall and inflow were performed to understand the development and the micromorphological changes of rill on steep slopes. The characteristic factors of the micromorphology, such as the rill cross section, rill volume, rill density, rill order, and rill sharpness, were analyzed according to steepness and location (upper or lower) of slope. The head-cut of the simultaneous incised rills by rainfall simulation moved rapidly upslope, and the randomly developed rills expanded deeply and widely with their connection. The rill cross section evolved to downslope gradually increased. The rill volume occupied about 78 % of the sediment volume, confirming that the contribution of the sediment from the rill erosion is greater than that of the interrill erosion. Although the rate of increase in rill order slowed as the slope increased, the total length and density of the rill generally increased. As the slope increased from 15° to 20°, the bed incision of rills became larger than the sidewall expansion, and the rill sharpness increased by 1.6 times. The runoff coefficient on the lower slope decreased by 12.3 % than that on the upper slope. It was evaluated that the subsoil exposures and formation changes by the rill expansion increased the infiltration rate. Although the sediment accompanying the rills generally increased with slope increase, it was directly influenced by the hydraulic velocity of enhanced rill with the local convergence and expansion in the process of the rill evolution.