A DAILY RAINFALL EROSIVITY MODEL FOR WESTERN AMAZONIA

Rainfall erosivities as defined by the R factor from the universal soi l loss equation were determined for all events during a two-year perio d at the station La Cuenca in western Amazonia. Three methods based on a power relationship between rainfall amount and erosivity were then applied to estimate event and daily rainfall erosivities from the resp ective rainfall amounts. A test of the resulting regression equations against an independent data set proved all three methods equally adequ ate in predicting rainfall erosivity from daily rainfall amount. We re commend the Richardson model for testing in the Amazon Basin, and its use with the coefficient from La Cuenca in western Amazonia.