The Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS) is a simulation model for predicting creep, saltation, and suspension sediment losses due to wind erosion on agricultural croplands. WEPS was developed by the USD A-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) over thepast 25+ years in response to customer requests for improved prediction technology to replace the predominately empirical Wind Erosion Equation (WEQ). WEPS simulates the important physical processes responsible for soil erosion by wind such as soil detachment by saltation abrasion and wind shear stress, particulate transport and deposition when the friction velocity at the surface generated by the wind exceeds the surface threshold friction velocity. WEPS also simulates surface crusting, soil aggregation and roughness changes due to weather events, plant growth, and residue decomposition as well as soil disturbance by tillage and other management operations, Effects of field orientation, tillage row direction, surface roughness, and edge-of-field windbarriers are also simulated. USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) first implemented WEPS in October, 2010, now using it for all wind erosion assessment needs within their Agency.There have been several WEPS updates to NRCS since the original 1.0 release in 2010 (October 2011, April 2012, October 2013). Each of the previous updates included science model fixes, and WEPS interface feature enhancements, including bug fixes and database updates. This new release (1.5) also addresses specific bug fixes, minor interface improvements and tweaking of database records. The complete list of changes for this release update are provided and discussed in this report.
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