Use of Usle/ Gis Technology for Identifying Criteria for Monitoring Soil Erosion Losses in Agricultural Areas

Abstract

The assessment of land use and occupation is essential for predicting soil loss due to water erosion. The objective of this study was to determine criteria for monitoring soil loss in agricultural areas using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). Soil loss data were intersected with USLE factors and slope using geoprocessing techniques for the Samambaia River watershed, located in Cristalina, Goiás state, Brazil. A slope of 3% to 8% was found in approximately 50% of the study area. However, mean soil losses <10 t ha -1 year -1 were observed in slopes ≤ 3%, where the mean soil length (L) and slope steepness (S) were ≤2 and 0.2, respectively. The intersection of soil loss data with USLE factors was useful for identifying criteria for monitoring soil loss. The mean topographic factor (LS) in non-irrigated crops, pasture, and silviculture was 0.4 ± 0.4, 0.4 ± 0.7, and 2.2 ± 2.6, respectively. Therefore, LS values adequately indicated the type of land use and occupation considering that only silviculture could maintain soil losses below the tolerable limit of 10 t ha -1 year -1 for an LS mean of 2.2.

Estimativa da erosão hídrica em uma bacia hidrográfica no estado de Goiás (Brasil) por meio de modelagem e inteligência geoespacial

“…Por meio dessas tecnologias é possível integrar as informações em processos de modelagem para estimar as perdas de solo, permitindo a espacialização dos dados de forma isolada, assim como uma relação entre as variáveis por meio de uma álgebra de mapas, o que resulta na localização dos processos erosivos em diferentes gradientes Ferreira, 2018). Entre os modelos que estimam as perdas de solo por meio de geotecnologias, a Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) é o mais utilizado no mundo, principalmente pela sua facilidade de aplicação e por gerar resultados representativos da área modelada por meio de geotecnologias (El Jazouli et al, 2017;Bagio et al 2017;Botelho et al, 2018;Sujatha e Sridhar, 2019;Mohammed et al, 2020;Alves et al, 2022).…”

Effects of DEM resolution on the RUSLE-LS factor and its implications on soil and water management policies through the land cover seasonality

“…The accelerated erosive process causes changes in the surface runoff and, consequently, in the hydrological dynamics of the watershed, with effects on the decrease of water availability in periods of drought, increased peak flow in the rainy period with a propensity to flooding generation, silting up watercourses, besides the impacts on water quality (Nunes and Roig, 2015;Botelho et al, 2018), and also increasing public spending in an attempt to reverse or mitigate this environmental imbalance.…”