• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.454-458
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• 2007

Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is a serious problem causing the degradation of soil and water quality. Concentrated overland flow is the primary transport mechanism for a large amount of NPS pollutants from hillslope areas to downslope areas in a watershed. In this study, a soil erosion model, nLS model, to identify transitional overland flow regions (i.e., ephemeral gully head areas) was developed using the kinematic wave overland flow theory. Spatial data, including digital elevation models (DEMs), soil, and landcover, were used in the GIS-based model algorithm. The model was calibrated and validated using gully head locations in a large agricultural watershed, which were identified using 1-m aerial photography. The model performance was better than two previous approaches; the overall accuracy of the nLS model was 72 % to 87 % in one calibration subwatershed and the mean overall accuracy was 75 to 89 % in four validation subwatersheds, showing that the model well predicted potential transitional erosion areas at different watersheds. However, the user accuracy in calibration and validation was still low. To improve the user accuracy and study the effects of DEM resolution, finer resolution DEMs may be preferred because DEM grid is strongly sensitive to estimating model parameters. Information gained from this study can improve assessing soil erosion process due to concentrated overland flow as well as analyze the effect of microtopographic landscapes, such as riparian buffer areas, in NPS control.