Seasonal Dynamics of Rainfall Erosivity in Switzerland

Abstract. One major controlling factor of water erosion is rainfall erosivity, which is quantified by the kinetic energy of a rainfall event and its maximum 30-min intensity. Rainfall erosivity is often expressed as R-factor in soil erosion risk models like the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and its revised version (RUSLE). As rainfall erosivity is closely correlated with dynamic rainfall amount and intensity, the rainfall erosivity of Switzerland can be expected to have a characteristic regional and seasonal dynamic throughout the year. This intra-annual variability was mapped by a monthly modelling approach to assess simultaneously spatial and monthly pattern of rainfall erosivity. So far only national seasonal means and regional annual means exist for Switzerland. We used a network of 87 precipitation gauging stations with a 10-minute temporal resolution to calculate long-term monthly mean R-factors. Stepwise regression and Leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) were used to select spatial covariates which explain the spatial and temporal pattern of the R-factor for each month across Switzerland. The monthly R-factor is mapped by its specific regression equation and the ordinary kriging interpolation of its residuals (Regression-Kriging). As covariates, a variety of precipitation indicator data has been included like snow depths, a combination product of hourly precipitation measurements and radar observations (CombiPrecip), daily alpine precipitation (EURO4M-APGD) and monthly precipitation sums (RhiresM). Topographic parameters (elevation, slope) were also significant explanatory variables for single months. The comparison of the 12 monthly rainfall erosivity maps showed a distinct seasonality with highest rainfall erosivity in summer (June, July, and August) influenced by intense rainfall events. Winter months have lowest rainfall erosivity. A proportion of 62 % of the total annual rainfall erosivity is identified within four months only (June to September). Highest erosion risk can be expected for July where not only rainfall erosivity but also erosivity density is high. Additionally to the intra-annual temporal regime, a spatial variability of this seasonality was detectable between different regions of Switzerland. The assessment of the dynamic behavior of the R-factor is valuable for the identification of susceptible seasons and regions.