| Acronym | Definition |
|---|---|
| USLE | Universal Soil Loss Equation |
What is the USLE used for?
The USLE can be used to compare soil losses from a particular field with a specific crop and management system to "tolerable soil loss" rates. Alternative management and crop systems may also be evaluated to determine the adequacy of conservation measures in farm planning. Five major factors are used to calculate the soil loss for a given site.
What is the USLE of a slope?
Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) LS is the slope length-gradient factor. The LS factor represents a ratio of soil loss under given conditions to that at a site with the "standard" slope steepness of 9% and slope length of 22.13 m (72.6 ft).
What is the difference between USLE and RUSLE?
RUSLE has the same formula as USLE, with improvements in many of the factor estimates. RUSLE can handle more complex combinations of tillage and cropping practices and a greater variety of slope shapes.
What do you mean by USLE?
The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) predicts the long-term average annual rate of erosion on a field slope based on rainfall pattern, soil type, topography, crop system and management practices.
What does the USLE estimate?
The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is hailed as one of the most significant developments in soil and water conservation in the 20 thcentury. It is an empirical technology that has been applied around the world to estimate soil erosion by raindrop impact and surface runoff.
What is meaning of K in USLE equation?
soil erodibility factorIt is usually regarded as the amount of soil loss per unit erosive force, whether rainfall, surface flow, or seepage. The most commonly utilized soil erodibility term is the soil erodibility factor (K) of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) (Wischmeier & Smith, 1965).
What is the difference between USLE and RUSLE?
RUSLE also captures better than USLE that long rains can saturate the soil, leading to reduced intake and greater erosional runoff. In contrast with USLE, RUSLE can handle converging and diverging terrain and considers areas with net sedimentation.
Where is USLE model used?
The USLE or one of its derivatives are main models used by United States government agencies to measure water erosion.
Who developed USLE?
The development of the USLE was the culmination of decades of soil erosion experimentation conducted by university faculty and federal scientists across the United States. USLE as a complete technology was first published in 1965 in USDA Agriculture Handbook 282.
How is USLE LS factor calculated?
The equations for calculating LS in the RUSLE are:(1) LS = L ⋅ S (2) L = λ / 22.13 m (3) m = β / 1 + β (4) β = sin θ / 3 ⋅ sin θ 0.8 + 0.56 (5) S = 10.8 ⋅ sin θ + 0.03 θ < 9 % S = 16.8 ⋅ sin θ − 0.5 θ ≥ 9 % where λ is the slope length (m), m is a variable length-slope exponent, β is a factor that varies with slope ...
What does a high K factor mean?
K factor is soil erodibility factor which represents both susceptibility of soil to erosion and the rate of runoff, as measured under the standard unit plot condition. Soils high in clay have low K values, about 0.05 to 0.15, because they resistant to detachment.
What is the standard length and slope of the USLE plot USLE?
The soil erodibility factor, K, is the average soil loss, in tons per acre, per 100 ft–tons per acre of rainfall erosivity standardized for a plot of land with 9% slope, 72.6 ft long, under continuous cultivation (Fig. 11-2).
What is the difference between USLE and Musle?
The (MUSLE) model (Williams 1975), is a modified version of the USLE model (Wischmeier and Smith 1965). This model replaced the rainfall factor (R) with instantaneous peak flows and total runoff factor to predict soil erosion.
What modified USLE?
The Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) (Williams 1975) was developed as a watershed-based model to estimate the sediment yield produced by each individual storm event.
What are the limitation of USLE?
The most commonly cited limitation of the (R)USLE models is their reduced applicability to regions outside of the United States of America (Aksoy and Kavvas, 2005; Naipal et al., 2015; Sadeghi et al., 2014). The original USLE was formulated based on soil erosion studies on agricultural land in the USA.
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What is the USLE model?
The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) predicts the long-term average annual rate of erosion on a field slope based on rainfall pattern, soil type, topography, crop system and management practices. USLE only predicts the amount of soil loss that results from sheet or rill erosion on a single slope and does not account for additional soil losses that might occur from gully, wind or tillage erosion. This erosion model was created for use in selected cropping and management systems, but is also applicable to non-agricultural conditions such as construction sites. The USLE can be used to compare soil losses from a particular field with a specific crop and management system to "tolerable soil loss" rates. Alternative management and crop systems may also be evaluated to determine the adequacy of conservation measures in farm planning.
How to calculate USLE?
Procedure for Using the USLE 1 Determine the R Factor ( Table 1 ). 2 Based on the soil texture, determine the K value ( Table 2 ). If there is more than one soil type in a field and the soil textures are not very different, use the soil type that represents the majority of the field. Repeat for other soil types as necessary. 3 Divide the field into sections of uniform slope gradient and length. Assign an LS value to each section ( Table 3A ). 4 Choose the crop type factor and tillage method factor for the crop to be grown. Multiply these two factors together to obtain the C factor. 5 Select the P factor based on the support practice used ( Table 5 ). 6 Multiply the 5 factors together to obtain the soil loss per hectare (acre).
USLE stands for Universal Soil Loss Equation
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The specific objectives are: (1) apply the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model for the whole island, (2) compute soil loss estimates for the high-erosion areas (HEA) initially mapped, and (3) define a second approach for mapping of HEA and derive estimates of RUSLE soil loss for these HEA.
