WEPPCLIFF: A command-line tool to process climate inputs for soil loss models
Ryan P. McGehee, Dennis C. Flanagan, Puneet Srivastava
Abstract
A key driver of erosion, and arguably the most labor-intensive input to erosion models, especially the Water Erosion Prediction Project model (WEPP, Flanagan & Nearing, 1995), is climate. Even the simplest erosion models require climate inputs which are not always straightforward in their calculation. The complexity of these inputs dissuades potential users from creating their own inputs from observed data, which are almost always better than their simulated counterparts, especially when used to force erosion models for historical periods. For example, the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation version 2 (RUSLE2, User's reference guide, 2013) and WEPP are two of the leading soil erosion prediction models in the world today, but both still rely on climate inputs that are generated from outdated data, tools, or both.