Unpaved forest roads are common accessways in mountain areas being used for forestry purposes. The presence of forest roads produces large volumes of surface runoff and sediment yield due to changes in soil properties and hillslope profile. Rainfall simulation experiments were conducted to estimate the impacts of above-ground vegetation and antecedent soil water condition on hydrology and sediment processes. A total of 9 small plots(<TEX>$1m{\times}0.5m$</TEX>) were installed to represent different road surface conditions: no-vegetation(3 plots), vegetated surface(3 plots), and cleared vegetation surface(3 plots). Experiments were carried out on dry, wet, and very wet soil moisture conditions for each plot. Above ground parts of vegetation on road surface influenced significantly on surface runoff. Runoff from no-vegetation roads(39.24L) was greater than that from vegetated(25.05L), while cleared-vegetation condition is similar to no-vegetation roads(39.72L). Runoff rate responded in a similar way to runoff volume. Soil erosion was also controlled by land cover, but the magnitude is little than that of surface runoff. Even though slight differences among antecedent soil moisture conditions were found on both runoff and soil erosion, runoff rate and soil losses were increased in very wet condition, followed by wet condition. The experiments suggest that vegetation cover on forest road surface seems most effective way to reduce surface runoff and soil erosion during storm periods.
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