Modelling soil detachment by overland flow for the soil in the Tibet Plateau of China

The overland flow erosion is common and became more serious because of the climate warming inducing more runoff in the Tibet Plateau. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effects of flow rate, slope gradient, shear stress, stream power, unit stream power and unit energy of water-carrying section on the soil detachment capacity for the soil in the Tibet Plateau of China due to the information is limited. To achieve this aim, laboratory experiments were performed under six flow rates (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 L min(−1)) and six slope gradients (8.74%, 17.63%, 26.79%, 36.40%, 46.63 and 57.73%) by using a slope-adjustable steel hydraulic flume (4 m length, 0.4 m width, 0.2 m depth). The results indicated that soil detachment capacity ranged from 0.173 to 6.325 kg m(−2) s(−1) with 1.972 kg m(−2) s(−1) on average. The soil detachment capacity increased with power function as the flow rate and the slope gradient augmented (R(2) = 0.965, NRMSE = 0.177 and NSE = 0.954). The soil detachment capacity was more influenced by flow rate than by slope gradient in this study. The relation between soil detachment capacity and shear stress, stream power, unit stream power and unit energy of water-carrying section can be described by using the linear function and power function, the power function relationship performed better than the linear function in generally. The stream power exhibits the best performance in describing the soil detachment capacity among shear stress, stream power, unit stream power and unit energy of water-carrying section in this study. The erodibility value in this study was larger than and the critical shear stress was less than those for soil in the eastern China. There has a huge potential for the soil in the Tibet Plateau eroded by the water erosion when enough runoff exiting. More attention should be payed to the water erosion process and mechanism in the Tibet Plateau area in the future.