Spatial-temporal characteristics of rainfall erosivity in northern Shaanxi region in the Loess Plateau

In the regions of water-erosion,rainfall erosivity is a key index used to determine the characteristics of erosivity of rainfall.The soil erosion in Loess Plateau,northern Shaanxi Province,is rather severe and rainfall is the main dynamic of this process.In this study,progress of the rainfall research at home and abroad was analyzed with the simple method of estimating the rainfall erosion.Based on the natural environment of Loess Plateau,this study estimated rainfall erosion variability during years and seasonal distribution using daily rainfall data from 9 weather stations.Moreover,the average annual rainfall erosivity in the study region was estimated by calculating 29 weather stations in and near northern Shaanxi.Maps of rainfall erosion distribution were made by Surfer software.Result showed that the seasonal distribution of rainfall erosivity is centralized from June to September,the erosivity of rainfall decreases from the southeast to the northwest of the northern Shaanxi study region,with annual rainfall shows a similar pattern.The inter-annual variation is severe.