1996/09/01 by P.J.J. Desmet, P.P.J. Desmet, G. Govers +1 · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Engineering · Environmental Science · #Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies #Soil and Unsaturated Flow #Soil erosion and sediment transport
paper · doi:10.1080/00224561.1996.12457102
crossref issued 1996/09/01 · crossref published 1996/09/01 · crossref published-print 1996/09/01 · openalex publication_date 1996/09/01 · crossref published-online 2025/01/29 · crossref created 2025/04/29 · crossref deposited 2025/04/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/28 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
A computer algorithm to calculate the USLE and RUSLE LS-factors over a two-dimensional landscape is presented. When compared to a manual method, both method yield broadly similar results in terms of relative erosion risk mapping. However, there appear to be important differences in absolute values. Although both method yield similar slope values, the use of the manual method lead to an underestimation of the erosion risk because the effect of flow convergence is not accounted for. The computer procedure has the obvious advantage that it can easily be linked to GIS software. If data on land use and soils are available, specific K, C and P-values can be assigned to each land unit so that predicted soil losses can then be calculated using a simple overlay procedure. The algorithm Leaves the user the choice to consider land units as being hydrologically isolated or continuous. A comparison with soil data showed a reasonably good agreement between the predicted erosion risk and the intensity of soil truncation observed in the test area.