SOIL DETACHMENT IN THE PHYSICALLY-BASED SOIL-EROSION PROCESS - A REVIEW

This article presents a broad review of the physical process of soil e rosion, but with the main focus on the approaches, forms of equations, and techniques commonly adopted to quantify the rate of soil detachme nt in an erosion event. While presenting some of the commonly used equ ations, the emphasis is placed on the physical significance of the ass ociated parameters and the general weaknesses of the equations. The tw o main parameters of the existing equations, namely the critical condi tion for erosion and soil erodibility, are evaluated in this article w ith respect to the factors affecting them. In addition, the impacts of flow and moisture Variations in the soil that are commonly neglected while defining soil erosion components and parameters are also discuss ed. The conclusion of this article is that there is a need to derive a more fundamental equation for predicting the soil detachment rate. As a step in that direction, a conceptual clarification of the mechanism of soil detachment, is presented Some fundamental concepts that may b e useful in deriving a more physically and engineering-based soil deta chment equation are also introduced.