Wind Erosion and Fugitive Dust Fluxes on Agricultural Lands in the Pacific Northwest

With recent emphasis of agricultural wind erosion and associated dust emissions impacting downwind airquality, there is an increased need for a prediction method to estimate dust emissions and ambient particle concentrationson a wind event basis. Most current wind erosion methods predict average annual or seasonal erosion amounts, and onlyvery approximate estimates of suspended dust emissions are available. A project in the Columbia Plateau of easternWashington State was initiated to develop an empirical method to estimate dust emissions for this region. Fieldmeasurements, wind tunnel tests, and laboratory analyses were combined to provide an empirical wind erosion equationand a related vertical flux dust emission model. While based on measured data, the model has not been independentlyverified. When combined with a transport-dispersion model and calibrated, estimates of downwind particulateconcentrations compared reasonably with those measured.