**Field-Controlled Hydrological Experiments in Red Soil-Covered Areas (South China): A Review Covered Areas (South China): A Review**

**Field-Controlled Hydrological Experiments in Red Soil-**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.70547

Sanyuan Jiang, Qiande Zhu and Seifeddine Jomaa Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Sanyuan Jiang, Qiande Zhu and Seifeddine Jomaa

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70547

#### **Abstract**

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Investigation of runoff generation processes and response to changes in catchment characteristics (e.g. land use, soil type, slope, etc.), tillage practice and climate pattern (e.g. rainfall intensity and rainfall duration) is important for understanding of the hydrological cycle and developing land management practices for water and soil conservation. Field and indoor artificial hydrological experiments provide an efficient way for the study of the above processes. This study gave a summary of artificial hydrological experiments using rainfall simulator in China, especially in the red soil-covered region of Jiangxi province. Experiment setting for field and indoor artificial hydrological experiments were introduced; the water balance, runoff components (i.e. surface runoff, subsurface runoff at different depths), runoff amount and relationship to rainfall events were studied and assessment of land coverage and tillage practices on soil and water conservation were conducted. Based on the literature review, it implies that hydrological process at field slope requires more investigation in the following aspects: (1) improvement of monitoring strategies and methodology and isotopic method may be used to improve understanding of hydrological regimes, (2) developing long-term in situ experimental study to analyse soil water movement at different temporal and spatial scales and (3) developing and improving modelling of soil water movement.

**Keywords:** controlled experiments, runoff processes, water balance, flow pathways, diffuse nutrient losses, soil erosion

### **1. Introduction**

Investigations of rainfall-runoff processes, hydrological flow pathways and water transit time are important for understanding of the hydrological cycle and related nutrient and sediment transport, which may assist developing land management practices with the purpose of water

Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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and soil conservation, prevention of nutrient losses and soil erosion. [1]. Field/pilot rainfallrunoff experiments are traditional and sound approaches to uncover runoff generation processes and assess their responses to changes in topography, land use, soil type, underlying geology and climate patterns. In particular, the artificial rainfall-runoff experiments originated from the 1950s in the USA were conducted for investigation of water and soil conservation and later applied worldwide on research of runoff generation processes and nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus) losses. Up to now, these approaches are still widely used in investigating nutrient export patterns, the impacts of rainfall pattern (amount, duration and intensity), land use, soil type and antecedent soil water content on nutrient losses [2–4].

Iserloh et al. have mentioned that using small rainfall simulators, among others, has more advantages due to the low costs, easy to transport and use in inaccessible areas and low water consumption [6]. This technique has been used worldwide by different research groups where it was beneficial for the investigation of runoff generation processes, assessments of soil erosion by surface runoff and decision-making in soil and water conservation. The design and constructions of artificial (indoor and field) hydrological experiments using rainfall simulator

Field-Controlled Hydrological Experiments in Red Soil-Covered Areas (South China): A Review

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70547

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**Figure 1** shows the schematic design of indoor artificial rainfall-runoff experiment in a flume, which is used to investigate soil erosion processes and influential factors, including rainfall patterns (e.g. rainfall intensity, duration) and soil characteristics (e.g. soil gradation, porosity,

The erosion flume has the size of 6 m long × 2 m wide. The flume and sprinkling system are described in detail in [7–10]. A summary of the key features is given here. The flume sits on a hydraulic piston so that the slope can be adjusted. The flume can be filled with 0.32 m of a natural soil taken from field site and is underlain by 0.10 m of coarse gravel to facilitate the

**Figure 1.** Schematic structure of the designed rainfall-runoff soil erosion flume referring to the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) erosion flume [7, 8]. The slope of the flume can be adjusted within the intervals 0 and 30%.

Precipitation is fallen using 10 oscillating sprinkler systems located at 3 m above the soil surface.

precedent soil moisture). An example of such experiment is shown in **Figure 1**.

for different purposes are described below.

**2.1. Indoor artificial hydrological experiment**

Original and reliable data can be obtained from rainfall-runoff experiment and hydrometric monitoring in natural rainfall events. However, it takes long time for conducting rainfallrunoff experiment under natural rainfall condition due to high variability, randomness and uncertainty in rainfall occurrence. It is also heavily impacted by environmental and climatic conditions as rainfall condition cannot be controlled. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain ideal results from runoff generation study under natural rainfall condition and therefore is not efficient. Artificial runoff experiment using rainfall simulator can realise simulation of different rainfall patterns (i.e. combination of different rainfall intensities and different rainfall durations). It can be either conducted in the field or in indoor laboratory by simulating physiographic characteristics and rainfall pattern of the concerned study site. Artificial rainfall simulator can increase the efficiency of the experimental study by overcoming the high randomness in occurrence of diffuse nutrient export and soil erosion under natural rainfall condition [5]. Thus, the artificially rainfall-runoff experiments combined with hydrological and geochemical analysis have become effective techniques for investigation of runoff generation, nutrient losses and soil erosion processes and estimation of pollutants' export loads.

In the following sections, we provide a review on artificial hydrological experiments, with particular focus on those conducted in red soil-covered area in South China, from the perspectives of idea and constructions of artificial experimental facilities, experimental methods (such as hydrometrical methods for various parameters, simulated rainfall equipment, hydrogeochemical methods) and findings obtained from relevant studies. Finally, a summary of challenges in artificial hydrological experiments and outlook of future studies are given. The outcome of this work may provide guidelines for the design and constructions of artificial hydrological experiment based on various objectives, improve understanding of hydrological processes and impacts on nutrient and soil erosion, serve for hydrological modelling development by improving parameter setting and support decision-making on watershed management for water and soil conservation.
