Estimating the wind erosion climatic factor using regional distribution function

Wind erosion climatic factor is a measure of climatic factors explaining the wind erosion erosivity. Humidity and wind speed are climatic characteristics that must be considered as the erosion parameters. In this study, linear moment analysis (L-moments) and wind erosion climatic factor were used to evaluate the regional climate’s tendency effect on wind erosion in Yazd province. Wind erosion climatic factor is calculated from wind speed quantiles, and other available meteorological data. Climatic factor analysis is done by Monthly average and daily maximum of wind speed and other available meteorological data from 14 meteorological stations in Yazd province. Three homogeneous groups of wind speed were considered based on results of regional analysis. Then regional wind speed quantiles were calculated and their results is used for calculating wind erosion climatic factor values for two 6-month wet and dry periods that belongs to every homogeneous region. In addition, erosion climatic factor values was estimated for each station by using Weibull distribution and the results were compared with the values of the regional erosion climatic factor. Results showed that estimated values using the regional-based approach have smaller mean square error than the Weibull method. Therefore, this method can be assessed the regional risk of wind erosion in arid and semi-arid environments.