Rainfall Erosivity Estimation for Northern and Southern Peninsular Malaysia using Fourneir Indexes

Rainfall erosivity considers the rainfall amount and its intensity. This is an important parameter for soil erosion risk assessment under future land use and climate change. Comparisons of all climatic parameters show that rainfall is directly involved in the loss of soil quality during torrential rain. The effect of rainfall erosivity in Northern and Southern region of Malaysia was considered for two stations, Bukit Berapit and Johor Bahru. Monthly as well as annual rainfall was obtained from the Department of Drainage and Irrigation, Malaysia for thirty years (1983-2012). Trends analysis of the rainfall data were obtained for 30 years that shows trends for mean monthly rainfall. This was conducted using Mann-Kendall trend analysis and Sen's slope tests. Trend analysis shows that there is no significant difference in mean monthly rainfall for the studied period for Johor Bahru. The Fournier indexes were used to determine the effect of extreme rainfall events towards soil erosivity. Bukit Berapit recorded 3.33% cases of severe impact using Fournier index and 13.33% cases of high impact using modified Fournier index. The result shows that there is a positive correlation between rainfall trends and soil erosivity.