Title: THE ASSESSMENT OF SOIL EROSION PROCESS IN A TEST AREA AT NUTS4 LEVEL
Abstract: Soil erosion forms a major threat to European soil resources, soil being a vital and largely non-renewable resource. Therefore, there is a concern about this issue at European level. Assessing and monitoring soil erosion is needed to evaluate the impact of, inter alia, agricultural and land use policies in Europe. A case-study at a commune (NUTS4) level has been developed in order to compare two ways of applying the USLE equation (a model adjusted by Motoc, and also PESERA model). The input data are the soil map at the scale 1:200,000, a soil map for Adamclisi at the scale 1:10,000, as well as the grid 1 x 1km with the soil loss from running the European PESERA Model. Firstly, the areas affected by the soil erosion process are designed based on the soil maps at the two scales. The second step was to assess the water erosion risk, based on the information from 1:200,000 soil map. Thirdly, a model of computing the potential soil loss using USLE equation, adapted by Motoc, in two cases - land with and without canopy - have been run. The erosivity and erodability coefficient are assessed using expert judgment; the slope and the aspect have been calculated using ArcView modules. The topographic factor has been computed in two ways using both Motoc approach, and WEPP model. Finally, the PESERA model has been run, and the outputs have been compared with the outputs from the previous model. It can be noticed that there is a similitude between the soil loss from PESERA with that from soil map at the scale 1: 200,000, but there is a difference in the magnitude for the two models, the area affected by erosion process being approximately the same.
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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