Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version.

If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options.

The applicability of the sediment transport capacity concept in rill erosion was analyzed and tested in rill experiments conducted in field conditions. Transport capacity as usually defined was verified only in 3.2 % of 468 measured rill points, while net deposition rates were found in 7.7 % of the cases. The results indicate that the flow conditions are not always the limiting factor for the transport of sediments. Four of the later proposed equations for sediment transport capacity and three of the most used equations for transport capacity were compared to experimentally measured data. All the equations differed in various orders of magnitude in their estimations for sediment transport capacity. The results revealed that the understanding and mathematical representation of the transport capacity in rill erosion is still far from complete.