Rainfall simulation: A tool for best management practice education

Rainfall simulators are ideal educational tools for demonstrating what agricultural non-point source pollution is and how it can be controlled. The simulators are effective because they allow controlled rainstorms to be applied to various cover plots when and where desired. Educational activities can be scheduled to coincide with artificial rainfall events, and the actual processes affecting erosion and pollutant transport can be observed and discussed. This, of course, is not practical with natural rainfall.