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Water induced soil erosion has always been a matter of concern in watersheds as they increase the soil vulnerability towards erosion. If unchecked, the eroded material reduces the capability of the river to carry the adequate amount of water and increase the amount of sediments in the watershed area. Determining vulnerability of soil to erosion plays a key role in identifying the extent of fragility and helps in making appropriate plans for conservation. Among various methods present to assess soil erosion vulnerability, there is a need to understand the frequently used methods so far and its advancement with time. Various models have been used in past two decades (1991-2019) and the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is the most used model because of its quantitative ability to estimate the average annual soil loss due to erosion in a watershed and its compatibility with the GIS interface. Different approaches like MCDM, SWAT etc. are being utilised to study soil erosion vulnerability of watersheds. This review showed that the frequently used MCDM method is a Compound Factor (CF) method and that RUSLE is a most used quantitative approach. The review identifies 14 different methods which includes 4 methods which provide quantitative estimation while the other 10 methods are used for qualitative assessment of soil erosion vulnerability. Being the most adopted approach, various modifications of different factors of RUSLE introduced by researchers have made it more efficient with time. This review identifies the trend in advancement of various approaches and methods to study soil erosion vulnerability of watersheds around the world and also how various studies are distributed in the Himalayan and non-Himalayan region. The review also provides an understanding of the status of various current approaches to study soil erosion in a watershed and lists the improvements adopted in the frequently used approaches during 1991 and 2019.

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