Application of a process-based model as a predictive tool for erosion loss in ungauged basins

In semiarid northeastern Brazil, small and medium sized river basins have no monitoring devices that can help to estimate erosion rates and sediment yields. The Experimental Basin of Sume was installed in the early 1980s, with four microbasins and nine erosion plots, to help understand the processes involved and to serve as a first step towards finding ways to estimate runoff and erosion in ungauged basins. The dataset collected up until the early 1990s represents a unique and valuable source of information about runoff and erosion in this region. A process-based, event-oriented model (WESP) has been successfully calibrated utilizing the data collected in the experimental basin. The calibrated model and data from erosion plots in the experimental basin were used to obtain an empirical regional soil loss equation of the type proposed by Musgrave. The results seem quite promising, and the proposed method has the potential of being a reliable predictive tool for basins without data in the region.