A Comparative Study of Rainfall Erosivity Estimation for South Italy and Southeastern Australia

Abstract

In this paper, using Sicilian and Australian rainfall intensity data, a comparison between different estimators (modified Fournier index F, FF index) of the rainfall erosivity factor in the USLE was made. The relationship between the modified Fournier index and the mean annual rainfall, P, was theoretically derived. The K constant, linking the FF index and P, and its cumulative distribution function (CDF) were used to establish hydrological similitude among different geographical regions of southern Italy and southeastern Australia. To predict the erosion risk for an event of given average recurrence interval, the probability distribution of the annual value F a.j of the Arnoldus index was studied. In order to establish the theoretical CDF to use as a regional parent distribution, the descriptive ability of LN2 and EV1 distributions was studied by both an at-site analysis and a hierarchical regional procedure. The analysis showed that for each sub-region of southern Italy and southeastern Australia, characterized by a constant coefficient of variation, the erosion risk index is constant.