Possibilities of including surface runoff barriers in the slope-length factor calculation in the GIS environment and its integration in the user-friendly LS-RUSLE tool

Abstract

The effect of the morphology is key aspect of erosion modelling. In Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) type methods, this effect is expressed by the topographic factor (LS). The LS calculation in GIS is performed by a unit contributing area (UCA) method and can mainly be influenced by the pixel resolution, by the flow direction algorithm and by the inclusion of a hydrologically closed unit (HCU) principle, the cutoff slope angle (CSA) principle and the ephemeral gullies extraction (EG) principle. This research presents a new LS-RUSLE tool created with the inclusion of these principles in the automatic user-friendly GIS tool. The HCU principle using a specific surface runoff interruption algorithm, based on pixels with NoData values at the interruption points (pixels), appears to be key. With this procedure, the occurrence of overestimation results by flow conversion was rapidly reduced. Additionally, the reduction of extreme L and LS values calculated in the GIS environment was reached by the application of the CSA and EG principles. The results of the LS-RUSLE model show the prospective use of this tool in practice.

Predicting soil erosion potential under CMIP6 climate change scenarios in the Chini Lake Basin, Malaysia

“…The steepness and length of the slope had crucial components in soil loss. It indicated potencies of topographical factors in soil loss and runoff events (Brychta and Brychtová 2020 ). Topographical factors were determined by a formula from Wischmeier ( 1975 ) in the following equation: L was flow accumulation (the upper slope region to a specified pixel) with a size of a pixel of 30 m. Flow accumulation was generated from DEM; 0.6 was chosen as the m value, because slope > 12%; s represented percent slope.…”

“…The steepness and length of the slope had crucial components in soil loss. It indicated potencies of topographical factors in soil loss and runoff events (Brychta and Brychtová 2020). Topographical factors were determined by a formula from Wischmeier (1975) in the following equation:…”

Spatial Modelling of Vineyard Erosion in the Neszmély Wine Region, Hungary Using Proximal Sensing

“…The LS factor can be calculated from a digital terrain model using GIS tools based on the unit contributing area (UCA) principle [34]. Values for L and S values were generated using the slope steepness and runoff accumulation per cell derived from the high-resolution DTM obtained from drone images.…”

Quantitative Evaluation of Soil Water and Wind Erosion Rates in Pakistan

“…30 degrees and the slope length was 100 m) with reference to the relevant technical regulations and standards of the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources (Center of Soil Conservation Monitoring of MWR, Soil erosion census technical regulations, 2021.6; Center of Soil Conservation Monitoring of MWR, Guide to Soil Erosion Monitoring, 2021.6; Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China, Standard for Classification and Gradation of Soil Erosion SL190-2007, 2008,1) and the study byBrychta and Brychtova (2020) [46].…”