This study examines snowmelt runoff, infiltration, and erosion occurring at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) and the potential hazard created against shallow-land burial facilities.;Snowmelt runoff, infiltration, and erosion were measured during extreme snowmelt events produced by simulated rainfall in order to re-create a "worst case" situation for snowmelt erosion. Rainfall simulations were conducted on soils that were unfrozen, continually frozen, or diurnally frozen, and covered by natural snow or simulated snow, or were without snow cover. Diurnally frozen soils without snow cover produced significantly more interrill. erosion (mu = 7870 kg/ha) than frozen or unfrozen soils.;Ambient levels of snow accumulation/ablation and subsequent runoff, infiltration, and erosion were measured on nine simulated waste burial trench caps (SWBTC) maintaining three surface cover treatments. Data collected from SWBTC plots during 1994--97 were utilized to test the SNTHERM89 and SHAW (Simultaneous Heat and Water) models to determine their ability to accurately estimate the processes of snowmelt, runoff, and infiltration as they occur in sagebrush-steppe ecosystems. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).
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