Water erosion is one of the main processes associated to environmental degradation. The soil detachment and transport depends of the raindrop impact and surface runoff. As the agricultural production losses result from water erosion, the correct design of soil conservation systems is necessary to avoid high costs of installation and maintenance. Pruski and collaborators developed a model to estimate the maximum surface runoff depth under typical agricultural conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the model developed by Pruski and collaborators by comparison between the calculated values with those obtained experimentally. Low percent differences and high correlation coefficients were evidenced between the values obtained experimentally and the calculated. These results show that the evaluated model is effective to estimate the maximum surface runoff depth.
soil and water conservation; surface runoff; hydrologic model; water erosion