Spatially distributed GIS-realized mathematical model of rainstorm erosion losses of soil

In connection with the wide and ever increasing spread of erosion degradation of agricultural lands in Ukraine, the task of developing mathematical models and methods for calculating water erosion of soils corresponding to the current level of erosion study and the demands of soil protection practices is becoming increasingly important. The article is devoted to the development of a spatially distributed GIS-implemented mathematical model of rainstorm soil erosion, which accounts for most of the annual soil losses (in the Steppe zone, for example, about 90 %). The development of the model is based on the most theoretically and informationally grounded model for the Steppe and Forest-Steppe of Ukraine , “the logical-mathematical model of rainstorm soil outwash” developed by H. I. Shvebs (1974, 1981), as well as the results of theoretical and field studies and mathematical modeling of the slope runoff and water erosion of soil, carried out at the Department of Physical Geography and Environmental Management of Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University in the 1990s - 2010s, and also the possibilities of modern geoinformation technologies. For the spatial implementation of the model, a raster model of spatial data and operators of the PCRaster GIS-package (University of Utrecht, the Netherlands) were used, integrated with the Basic programming language into a single system that provides an implementation of the computational algorithm. The developed physical-statistical model of soil erosion-sedimentation takes into account the peculiarities of the formation of slope runoff and soil outwash in conditions of excessive nonstationarity of heavy rainfall, as well as spatial heterogeneity of all major natural and economic factors of water erosion on a slope, including slope steepness, exposure, longitudinal and transverse forms of slopes, soil erodibility, structure of sown areas and anti-erosion measures. Checking the adequacy of the mathematical model was performed using observational data of four experimental catchments ; two runoff plots of the Moldavan water-balance station with total area of 0.08 ha, the Ploska catchment with area of 8.5 ha (Boguslav field experimental base of Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute) and the Sukha catchment with area of 63 ha (Veliko-Anadol water-balance station) with observation periods of 17-31 years. Comparison of the calculated average over the catchment area of mean annual values of rainstorm soil losses, with the corresponding values obtained from measurements on these catchments, made on the basis of Nash-Sutcliff efficiency criterion (NS), allowed us to evaluate the quality of the model as good (NS = 0.72).