Soil erosion vulnerability in the verde river basin, southern minas gerais

Abstract

Soil erosion is one of the most significant environmental degradation processes. Mapping and assessment of soil erosion vulnerability is an important tool for planning and management of the natural resources. The objective of the present study was to apply the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) using GIS tools to the Verde River Basin (VRB), southern Minas Gerais, in order to assess soil erosion vulnerability. A annual rainfall erosivity map was derived from the geographical model adjusted for Southeastern Brazil, calculating an annual value for each pixel. The maps of soil erodibility (K), topographic factor (LS), and use and management of soils (C) were developed from soils and their uses map and the digital elevation model (DEM) developed for the basin. In a GIS environment, the layers of the factors were combined to create the soil erosion vulnerability map according to RUSLE. The results showed that, in general, the soils of the VRB present a very high vulnerability to water erosion, with 58.68% of soil losses classified as "High" and "Extremely High" classes. In the headwater region of VRB, the predominant classes were "Very High" and "Extremely High" where there is predominance of Cambisols associated with extensive pastures. Furthermore, the integration of RUSLE/GIS showed an efficient tool for spatial characterization of soil erosion vulnerability in this important basin of the Minas Gerais state.

Water erosion vulnerability and sediment delivery rate in upper Iguaçu river basin – Paraná

“…However, this situation differs from those found by Durães and Mello (2014) and Oliveira et al (2014), who used the same technique for estimating erosivity, observing that the greatest values Water erosion vulnerability and sediment delivery rate in upper Iguaçu river basin -Paraná were concentrated at the head of the studied basins, showing that the orographical effect is fundamental to the erosive rains pattern. According to the authors, such features can be attributed to the different characteristics and phenomena inherent to the process of rain formation in each region (south and southeast).…”

“…As monitoring soil management and conservational practices are difficult to achieve via satellite imaging, since they represent a small portion of the basin, this variable was considered to be 1. It must be highlighted that this same thought was used in various works, such as those of Pradhan et al (2012), Vemu andPinnamaneni (2011), Silva, Montenegro andSantos (2012), Oliveira et al (2014) and Durães, Mello and Beskow (2016). The values of C used in this study were obtained from the literature presented in Table 4.…”

Agricultural watershed modeling: a review for hydrology and soil erosion processes

“…RUSLE3D model has been applied to develop soil erosion risk maps mainly in developing countries (Beskow et al, 2009;Mello, 2014;Oliveira et al, 2014;Segura et al, 2014;Tang et al, 2015;Zhou et al, 2008). With the advent of geospatial computer resources, its application has allowed generating an easier and more accurate soil erosion risk map, supporting the engineers to identify spatially areas more susceptible to erosion and then, to target soil conservation practices more adequate.…”

“…Figure 1 presents an example of a soil erosion risk map development through RUSLE3D. This study was carried out by Oliveira et al (2014) to a basin located in southern Minas Gerais State, Brazil.…”

“…The version that consider this possibility as known as Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (M-USLE) has been applied embedded with the hydrological models, like in Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and AnnAGNPS, for simulation sediment transport in agricultural watersheds. (Oliveira et al, 2014).…”