Concept of a new pluviometer for metering rainfall erosivity

Rainfall is the main driver of several natural phenomena having a large impact on human activities. Its monitoring is then very important for natural disaster prevention and for the preservation of the environment. One important phenomenon is related to soil displacement due to rainfall impact. The intensity of physical soil degradation, detachment and transport of soil particles by raindrop splash and interrill erosion is largely controlled by rainfall characteristics. There is still a lot of debate as to whichparameter expresses the best rainfall erosivity. Due to the limited data ondrop-size distribution of natural rainfall and the time consuming nature of methods to obtain these data, rain erosivity parameters are commonly obtained from empirical relationships based on rainfall intensity. This paper describes an a new pluviometer able to measure several raindrop variables and assess rainfall kinetic energy at the impact with the ground. It enables one to measure drop size and drop velocity in real time and thus any parameter linked to rainfall erosivity. The pluviometer is based on the combination of optical and electrical sensors and it is based on cheap technologies in order to allow the easy distribution of several monitoring station on the analyzed area. A description of the device and of its sensor is presented in the present paper. © (2012) Trans Tech Publications.