The rainfall parameter that expresses the capacity to promote soil erosion is called rainfall erosivity (R), and is commonly represented by the indexes EI30 and KE>25. The calculations of these indexes requires pluviographical records, that are difficult to obtain in Brazil. This paper describes the use of synthetic rainfall series to compute EI30 and KE>25 in Espírito Santo State (Brazil). Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were also developed to spatially interpolate R values in Espírito Santo. EI30 and KE>25 indexes values were close to those calculated on a homogeneous area according to the similarity of rainfall distribution; indicating the applicability of the use of synthetic rainfall series to estimate the R factor. ANNs had a better performance than Inverse Distance Weighted and Kriging to spatially interpolate rainfall erosivity values in the State of Espírito Santo.
interpolation; rainfall generator; soil conservation; universal soil loss equation