Environ Earth Sci
DOI 10.1007/s12665-009-0294-z
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Calibrating a rainfall erosivity assessment model at regional scale
in Mediterranean area
Sergio Grauso Æ Nazzareno Diodato Æ
Vladimiro Verrubbi
Received: 16 January 2009 / Accepted: 1 September 2009
Ó Springer-Verlag 2009
Abstract A simplified regression model is here calibrated
on the basis of rainfall data records of Sicily (southern
Italy), in order to show the model reliability in assessing
the R-factor of the Universal Soil Loss Equation and its
revised version (RUSLE) and to provide an estimate of
long-term rainfall erosivity at medium-regional scale. The
proposed model is a rearrangement of a former simplified
model, formulated for the Italian environment, grouping
three easily available rainfall variables on various time
scales, which has been shown to be more successful than
others in reproducing the rainfall erosive power over
different locations of Italy. A geostatistical interpolation
procedure is then applied for generating the regional long-
term erosivity map with associated standard error. Areas
with severe erosive rainfalls (from 2,000 up to more than
6,000 MJ mm ha-1 h-1) are pointed out which will cor-
respond to areas suffering from severe soil erosion. Solving
the problem of calculating the R-factor value in the RUSLE
equation by means of such a simplified model here
formulated will allow to predict the related soil loss.
Moreover, given the availability of long time-series of
concerned rainfall data, it will be possible to analyse the
variability of rainfall erosivity within the last 50 years, and
to investigate the application of RUSLE or similar soil
S. Grauso (&)
V. Verrubbi
Dipartimento Ambiente, Cambiamenti Globali e Sviluppo
Sostenibile, ENEA C.R. Casaccia, Via Anguillarese 301,
00123 Rome, Italy
e-mail: grauso@enea.it
N. Diodato
Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change, TEDASS,
University of Sannio, Italy, via Bartolomeo Camerario 35,
82100 Benevento, Italy
e-mail: nazdiod@tin.it
erosion models with forecasting purposes of soil erosion
risk.
Keywords Rainfall erosivity
Regression models

RUSLE
Sicily
Mediterranean
Introduction
Rainfall erosivity evaluation is a focal point in soil loss
prediction. Soil erosion processes are strictly related to the
erosive power of rain which is function of the kinetic
energy of raindrops; thus, rainfall intensity and recurrence
of severe storms are key-factors to be evaluated. The
relationships of rainfall action with soil physical charac-
teristics and vegetal coverage, as well known, are expres-
sed in different kinds of prediction models which can help
in estimating the potential soil loss in definite conditions.
One of the most widespread models is the empirical
Universal Soil Loss Equation (Wischmeier and Smith
1978) and its revised version RUSLE (Renard et al. 1991,
1997; Foster 2004). This latter model, along with the
accurate evaluation of the main factors affecting soil ero-
sion processes, such as rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility,
morphology, land use/cover and conservation practices,
offers the possibility to replace missing data with reliable
estimates and to apply the model itself to surfaces of
varying extension, from the small agricultural plot up to the
catchment scale, by running the model on a GIS platform.
Moreover, the RUSLE model prediction capacity, if com-
pared with more accurate prediction models such as
physically based models, is more preferably referred to
long-term average estimates, which is the typical time-
dimension for management purposes. Then, given its
simplified form and inherent prediction characteristics, the
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