Quantifying catchments sediment release in arid regions using GIS-based Universal soil loss equation (USLE)

Soil erosion triggers several global environmental and economic problems. The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and its updates are the most widely used models for soil erosion evaluation. USLE includes several parameters that describe rainfall and soil characteristics. The application of the USLE is challenging due to the variability of accuracy and resolution of the required data for each parameter from one region to another. In the current study, a methodology to collect and process the required data for the USLE is proposed. Remote sensing is utilized to estimate the soil components percentages and land cover. ArcGIS is used to evaluate the topographic slope and length parameters. Lastly, synthetic SCS type II storm distribution is used to distribute the available daily rainfall events to calculate the rainfall erosivity factor. The results showed good agreement between the calculated and measured catchment sediment release for two catchments in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

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