Assessment of soil erosion using RUSLE, GIS and remote sensing in NW Ethiopia

Abstract This study integrates the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) with GIS and remote sensing techniques to assess soil erosion severity in the Dembecha District, Northwestern Ethiopia. Digital elevation model (DEM), land use/land cover (LU/LC) maps, and rainfall and soil data were used as an input to identify the most erosion prone areas. Accordingly, the district was classified into five soil loss severity classes: very slight (24%), slight (49%), moderate (11%), severe (3%) and very sever (13%) risk classes. Most of the district was characterized by very slight to slight soil erosion rates which is associated with the gentle slope covered by Alisols and Cambisols. The mean annual soil loss in the district is estimated to be 49 t ha−1 yr−1, i.e. total soil loss of 526,996 t yr−1. Hence, soil and water conservation (SWC) measures should prioritize based on soil erosion severity levels.

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