Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

APPLICATION OF GIS FOR EVALUATION OF INTERPOLATION METHODS FOR RAINFALL EROSIVITY ZONING (CASE STUDY: KHOUZESTAN PROVINCE)

Hesam Maleki and Hossein Eslami

Abstract

Rainfall erosion is the ability of rainfall to detach the soil particles. This study was conducted to evaluate spatial variability of rainfall erosion index AIm with GIS in Khouzestan Province. The point data of AIm index in 74 stations were used to generate spatial erosion map using Arc GIS through deterministic and geostatistical interpolation methods(Radial Basis Functions, Inverse Distance Weighted, Kriging and Cokriging). Results indicate that co-kriging have least error and most correlation with determining coefficient of 0.89 for AIm, index . Based on the prepared map on the basis of Co-kriging method with secondary variable of elevation, the east and northeastern regions presented the highest values of AIm index, while the southern and western regions showed the lowest values of AIm index. The annual rainfall erosion (AIm) ranged from 3240 to 22000 mm2/h.