RUSLE-based Soil Erosion Modelling: From Field to Global-Scale and Back

Erosion-prediction technology rests on a set of mathematical equations that are used to compute soil erosion variables by using input data such as climate, soil, topography, land use and land management information. At present, many mathematical models categorized as empirical, conceptual, physically-based or process-oriented are available to estimate soil erosion at different spatial and temporal scales. The choice of which model is applicable, however, primarily remains linked to a matter of data availability rather than what type of information has to be obtained. Scaling in space and time remains a great challenge for the new mechanistic models. As a result, old fashion grey-type models such as USLE and the Revised USLE (RUSLE) are still by far the most widely applied soil erosion prediction models globally. A Web of Science query (http://apps.webofknowledge.com/) for the period 2007-2017 resulted in 1,149 hits corresponding to the keywords ‘Universal Soil Loss Equation’, ‘USLE’, ‘Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation’ or ‘RUSLE’. Modelling approaches independent of the USLE technology, such as WEPP, LISEM, EUROSEM and PESERA result in only 254 hits all together. At the current state-of-the-art, process-based physical models are not yet mature enough and input data availability is a continuing source of concern for large-scale scale applications, simple physically plausible empirical methods for predicting soil erosion such as RUSLE can provide reasonably accurate estimates for most practical purposes. In this talk, we will illustrate the major steps done to improve the comprehensiveness and usefulness of large-scale RUSLE-based soil erosion assessments. We will share insights into the proposed geo-statistical approaches to thoroughly incorporate land uses and their changes, the extent, types, spatial distribution of croplands and the effects of the different regional cropping systems into national as well as global soil erosion models (Borrelli et al., 2018). In addition, we would also like to discuss a novel object-oriented soil erosion modelling approach to assess large-scale spatial conditions and inter-annual variability of soil cover conditions at field-scale in order to bring RUSLE modelling back to its original dimension.

BORRELLI Pasquale;  PANAGOS Panagiotis; 

2018-01-31

Soil Environment Center of the Korea

JRC109019

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC109019,