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Original Article

Rainfall Characteristics of the Liudaogou Catchment on the Northern Loess Plateau of China

Authors

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to understand the rainfall characteristics of the
wind-water erosion crisscross region on the northern Loess Plateau, China, to provide basis
for the studies on mitigation of soil erosion, estimation on surface water resources and
local hydrological circle, etc. The Liudaogou Catchment with representative climatic and
hydrologic conditions of wind-water erosion crisscross region at the northern Loess
Plateau was chosen as the study area. Analysis of the rain intensity, duration and amount
was performed for the period from May to October for five years (2006-2010). The
maximum and average rain intensity of time intervals of 3 min, 5 min, 10 min, 30 min and
1 h were quantized. Rain intensity distribution of different time intervals (3 min, 5 min, 10
min, 30 min, 1h and 6 h) has been clarified to a certain degree. Rainfall events whose
rainfall duration equal or less than 30 min accounted for approximately 50% of the total
number of rainfall events. Rainfall event whose rainfall amount ≤ 1 mm accounted
approximately 50% of annual mean rainfall events whereas their total rainfall only
accounted for less than 7% of mean annual precipitation during 2006-2010. This study
veritably described the main rainfall characteristics of wind-water erosion crisscross region
on the northern Loess Plateau to a certain extent.

Keywords