Using the EPM method for the estimation of soil erosion in forest territories in the upper part of Dzherman River

Abstract

One of the most vulnerable to soil erosion parts in Bulgaria is the Struma river watershed. In the past, a lot of erosion control activities have been carried out in this catchment, but the topographic condition and easily prone to soil erosion soils are still redounding to erosion processes.  As a global problem with severe effects on the environment, soil erosion is on the agenda of scientific community. Because of difficult recognition on time, various methods for erosion risk and sediment loss assessment were applied. For mountainous watersheds one of the most appropriate approach is Erosion Potential Model (EPM). The study aims to evaluate soil erosion and investigate its spatial distribution by applying EPM, also known as Gavrilovic method. The object of investigation is the upper part of the Dzherman river, which is tributary of Struma river. The method was implemented only for forest territories to determine the most vulnerable part of the forest. The results showed that for the forest territories the average value of the coefficient Z is 0.19, which defines erosion as “low” and the average soil loss only for forest areas is 15.28 m3/km2/year. Nevertheless there are territories with more than 100 m3/km2/year.