Development of new equation to estimate the maximum soil depth by using the safety factor

摘要

Soil depth is an important parameter which is hard to be measured and estimated inhydrogeomorphic and pedological studies. Furthermore, the soil depth is one of the most unknown variablesin the hillslope system. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to develop a new equationto estimate the maximum soil depth by using the factor of safety. For this development, a uniform hydrologicalmodel was combined to an infinite slope model. The new equation is called MEMPS (Modelo deEstimativa da Máxima Profundidade do Solo). Differently from other equations to calculate maximumsoil depth, MEMPS does not require the assumptions of complete saturation or total absence of waterin the soil. Thus, MEMPS represents a condition closer to the reality when compared to other equations.Moreover, due to the incorporation of hydrogeomorphic parameters in its formulation, MEMPS acquiresfitness to reflect the influence of hydrogeomorphic processes on the soil depth estimation.