Regional soil erosion risk mapping using RUSLE, GIS, and remote sensing: a case study in Miyun Watershed, North China

Abstract

This paper applied the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), remote-sensing technique, and geographic information system (GIS) to map the soil erosion risk in Miyun Watershed, North China. The soil erosion parameters were evaluated in different ways: the R factor map was developed from the rainfall data, the K factor map was obtained from the soil map, the C factor map was generated based on a back propagation (BP) neural network method of Landsat ETM? data with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.929 to the field collected data, and a digital elevation model (DEM) with a spatial resolution of 30 m was derived from topographical map at the scale of 1:50,000 to develop the LS factor map. P factor map was assumed as 1 for the watershed because only a very small area has conservation practices. By integrating the six factor maps in GIS through pixel-based computing, the spatial distribution of soil loss in the upper watershed of Miyun reservoir was obtained by the RUSLE model. The results showed that the annual average soil loss for the upper watershed of Miyun reservoir was 9.86 t ha -1 ya -1 in 2005, and the area of 47.5 km 2 (0.3%) experiences extremely severe erosion risk, which needs suitable conservation measures to be adopted on a priority basis. The spatial distribution of erosion risk classes was 66.88% very low, 21.

GIS-based effect assessment of soil erosion before and after gully land consolidation: A case study of Wangjiagou project region, Loess Plateau

“…The universal soil loss equation (USLE) (Wischmeier and Smith, 1978) is widely used to monitor soil erosion because of its applicability and reliability (Lee, 2004;Fu et al, 2011). The GIS is widely employed in USLE/RUSLE to assess soil erosion (Fistikoglu and Harmancioglu, 2002;Erdogan et al, 2007;Irvem et al, 2007;Bonilla et al, 2010;Chen et al, 2011;Prasannakumar et al, 2012). The digital elevation model (DEM) established by data from field-measured elevation points and contours is more employed for relatively smaller areas (De Bruin and Stein, 1998;Liu et al, 2003;.…”

Soil erosion risk mapping using RUSLE model on jhargram sub-division at West Bengal in India

“…In the humid tropics of Asia, farmers grow subsistence crops in sloping land through highly erosive practices. An average rate of soil loss for Asia is 138 t ha -1 year -1 (Chen et al 2010;Sharma 2010). An estimated 175 Mha of land in India, constituting about 53 % suffers from deleterious effect of soil erosion and other forms of land degradation.…”

Web GIS-based simulation of water fluxes in the Miyun catchment area

“…So far, different studies have dealt with the problems of water quality and water quantity in the Miyun catchment area (Ou & Wang 2008, Xu et al 2009, Chen et al 2010, Ma et al 2010, Tian et al 2009). Nevertheless, there is a lack of regional specific knowledge about the processes of runoff generation and sediment and nutrient dynamic.…”

“…Annual average precipitation in the sub-humid continental monsoon climate is lower than 500 mm yr -1 and occurs mainly in summer, whereas winter and spring are extremely dry (Chen et al 2010). Precipitation increases from east to west, annual average temperature increases from south-east to north-west, ranging from 6.3 to 10.9 °C.…”