Improving the global applicability of the RUSLE model &ndash; adjustment of the topographical and rainfall erosivity factors

Naipal, V.; Reick, C.; Pongratz, J.; Van Oost, K.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-2893-2015

Articles | Volume 8, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-2893-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-2893-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 8, issue 9

Development and technical paper

|

15 Sep 2015

Development and technical paper |

| 15 Sep 2015

Improving the global applicability of the RUSLE model – adjustment of the topographical and rainfall erosivity factors

V. Naipal, C. Reick, J. Pongratz, and K. Van Oost

Download

Final revised paper (published on 15 Sep 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 19 Mar 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

- Printer-friendly version

- Supplement

RC C458: 'Comments to Naipal et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 15 Apr 2015
- AC C919: 'Response to Anonymous Referee #1', Victoria Naipal, 01 Jun 2015
RC C492: 'Comments for 'Improving the global applicability of the RUSLE model – Adjustment of the topographical and rainfall erosivity factors'', Anonymous Referee #2, 21 Apr 2015
- AC C920: 'Response to Anonymous Referee #2', Victoria Naipal, 01 Jun 2015

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Victoria Naipal on behalf of the Authors (05 Jun 2015) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (08 Jun 2015) by Tomomichi Kato

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (08 Jul 2015)

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (05 Aug 2015)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

In section 3.3 it would be helpful to actually state the climate zones rather than use the letters as many people may not be up-to-date with the classification system. For example, rather that state the “For the Ds climate zones”, the “f climate zones”,or the E climate zones”, state the cold climates (D) or the climates without dry seasons etc. This I believe would improve the readability and uptake of this particular section. This comment applies throughout the text where climates are mentioned (for example the Csb climate on line 453, or E zones line 485).

Specifically for the paragraph from Lines 468-493. First, it is stated that (line 469) that the other RUSLE factors (K and C) and the way they interact with each other are not adjusted the global scale. I would suggest that what is probably most important is the interaction of C and R and possibly even a recommendation for future models would be a monthly time step combining C and R at the global scale. This interaction is far more important than K and C and would be fundamental to improving the incorporation of the C factor in global models with improved R factor data. Second, the manuscript states that (Line 481) land management is not accounted for in the study. Often land management in RUSLE research is incorporated through the cover factor, particularly for different agricultural land uses. Maybe this is a limitation of the NDVI approach. These limitations are related but they are presented as being separate. I do think this section requires some work to be a bit more consistent with the research on the C factor and the importance of timing the C factor with the R factor in future applications.

Minor Comments:
Line 44-45: The authors state that it is widely recognized that soil erosion is a major threat to sustainable agriculture though they do not provide a references – further the sentence is awkward with the many decades is seemingly attached at the end. Is “the decades” a reference to the past or the future (and hence why references may help with this statement).
Line 300-302: It states ”previous studies that performed regression” though no citations are listed. Please provide some citations.
Minor Editorial Comments:
Line 15: Space between “model,due”
Line 23-25: The sentence with the required scaling of slope is a bit awkward. Although it is not necessary the authors may want to enhance this important sentence of their abstract for improved readability.
Line 51: Remove "the" before global nutrient cycles
Line 148: Eq 4 is a bit difficult to read (particularly the superscript 4)
Line 255: the GPCC acronym should be properly introduced.
Line 287: “on a globally scale”
Line 318: In most cases? This is vague and I’m unaware as to exactly what it refers to.
Line 350: anymore? This word adds confusion to this sentence. I understand why it was added after reviewing the previous referees comments. I believe this sentence needs some minor clarification.
Line 360: I’m not sure the respectively is required as it’s referring to a figure.
Line 400: Should it read the C factor estimation is too large? It reads as a bit awkward and I felt the authors may like to change this. Possibly high would be a more appropriate term than large (similarly on line 403)
Line 443: What is the HUC acronym? Please spell it out
Line 470: “from figures 8”should it be from Figure 8?
Figure 1: Does it need a figure title along with the description in the figure caption?
Figure 3: Be careful with the readability of the legends in this figure (and other figures).

Hide

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (12 Aug 2015) by Tomomichi Kato

AR by Victoria Naipal on behalf of the Authors (20 Aug 2015) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (31 Aug 2015) by Tomomichi Kato

AR by Victoria Naipal on behalf of the Authors (01 Sep 2015)

Short summary

We adjusted the topographical and rainfall erosivity factors that are the triggers of erosion in the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model to make the model better applicable at coarse resolution on a global scale. The adjusted RUSLE model compares much better to current high resolution estimates of soil erosion in the USA and Europe. It therefore provides a basis for estimating past and future global impacts of soil erosion on climate with the use of Earth system models.