Korean Journal of Agricultural Science ISSN:2466-2402(Print) 2466-2410(Online) 농업과학연구

Managing erosion control dams requires the annual average sediment yield to determine their storage capacity and time to full sediment-fill and dredging. The GeoWEPP (Geospatial interface for Water Erosion Prediction Project) model can predict the annual average sediment yield from various land uses and vegetation covers at a watershed scale. This study assessed the GeoWEPP to determine the annual average sediment yield for managing erosion control dams by applying it to five erosion control dams and comparing the results with field observations using ground-based LiDAR (light detection and ranging). The modeling results showed some differences with the observed sediment yields. Therefore, GeoWEPP is not recommended to determine the annual average sediment yield for erosion control dams. Moreover, when using the GeoWEPP, the following is recommended :1) use the US WEPP climate files with similar latitude, elevation and precipitation modified with monthly average climate data in Korea and 2) use soil files based on forest soil maps in Korea. These methods resulted in GeoWEPP predictions and field observations of 0 and 63.3 Mg·yr-1 for the Gangneung, 142.3 and 331.2 Mg·yr-1 for the Bonghwa landslide, 102.0 and 107.8 Mg·yr-1 for the Bonghwa control, 294.7 and 115.0 Mg·yr-1 for the Chilgok forest fire, and 0 and 15.0 Mg·yr-1 for the Chilgok control watersheds. Application of the GeoWEPP in Korea requires 1) building a climate database fit for the WEPP using the meteorological data from Korea and 2) performing further studies on soil and streamside erosion to determine accurate parameter values for Korea.