Soil Loss Assessment Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Model

Many catchment areas have suffered from exhaustive changes because of various land use activities over the recent past. These land use changes are associated with intensified environmental degradation witnessed in catchment areas. Such environmental problems include extreme soil erosion. Soil erosio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Allois Luvai, John Obiero, Christian Omuto
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022-01-01
Series:Applied and Environmental Soil Science
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/2122554
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850174407712964608
author Allois Luvai
John Obiero
Christian Omuto
author_facet Allois Luvai
John Obiero
Christian Omuto
author_sort Allois Luvai
collection DOAJ
description Many catchment areas have suffered from exhaustive changes because of various land use activities over the recent past. These land use changes are associated with intensified environmental degradation witnessed in catchment areas. Such environmental problems include extreme soil erosion. Soil erosion is one of the most critical problems responsible for the degradation of land worldwide. This phenomenon occurs as a result of the complex interactions that exist between natural and human-induced factors. Most factors experience spatiotemporal variations, hence complicating the soil erosion phenomenon. This complexity in the erosion process makes it difficult to quantify soil loss. Without proper information on soil loss, it becomes quite hard for decision-makers and managers to manage catchment areas. However, the availability of soil erosion models has made it easy to estimate soil loss. Many models have been developed to consider these complexities in soil erosion studies. Empirical models such as RUSLE provide a simple and broad methodology through which soil erosion is assessed. The RUSLE model integrates well geographic information system (GIS) and above all remote sensing. This paper presents an overview of the developmental milestones in estimating soil loss using the RUSLE model. The parameterization of the RUSLE model has been adequately reviewed with much emphasis on challenges and successes in derivation of each individual factor. From the review, it was established that different equations have been developed by researchers for modeling the five factors for the RUSLE model. The development of such equations was found to take into account the different variations that depict the soil erosion process.
format Article
id doaj-art-d5a9eb365a984e1e866b9201937acca4
institution OA Journals
issn 1687-7675
language English
publishDate 2022-01-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series Applied and Environmental Soil Science
spelling doaj-art-d5a9eb365a984e1e866b9201937acca42025-08-20T02:19:40ZengWileyApplied and Environmental Soil Science1687-76752022-01-01202210.1155/2022/2122554Soil Loss Assessment Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) ModelAllois Luvai0John Obiero1Christian Omuto2Pwani UniversityUniversity of NairobiUniversity of NairobiMany catchment areas have suffered from exhaustive changes because of various land use activities over the recent past. These land use changes are associated with intensified environmental degradation witnessed in catchment areas. Such environmental problems include extreme soil erosion. Soil erosion is one of the most critical problems responsible for the degradation of land worldwide. This phenomenon occurs as a result of the complex interactions that exist between natural and human-induced factors. Most factors experience spatiotemporal variations, hence complicating the soil erosion phenomenon. This complexity in the erosion process makes it difficult to quantify soil loss. Without proper information on soil loss, it becomes quite hard for decision-makers and managers to manage catchment areas. However, the availability of soil erosion models has made it easy to estimate soil loss. Many models have been developed to consider these complexities in soil erosion studies. Empirical models such as RUSLE provide a simple and broad methodology through which soil erosion is assessed. The RUSLE model integrates well geographic information system (GIS) and above all remote sensing. This paper presents an overview of the developmental milestones in estimating soil loss using the RUSLE model. The parameterization of the RUSLE model has been adequately reviewed with much emphasis on challenges and successes in derivation of each individual factor. From the review, it was established that different equations have been developed by researchers for modeling the five factors for the RUSLE model. The development of such equations was found to take into account the different variations that depict the soil erosion process.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/2122554
spellingShingle Allois Luvai
John Obiero
Christian Omuto
Soil Loss Assessment Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Model
Applied and Environmental Soil Science
title Soil Loss Assessment Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Model
title_full Soil Loss Assessment Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Model
title_fullStr Soil Loss Assessment Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Model
title_full_unstemmed Soil Loss Assessment Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Model
title_short Soil Loss Assessment Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Model
title_sort soil loss assessment using the revised universal soil loss equation rusle model
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/2122554
work_keys_str_mv AT alloisluvai soillossassessmentusingthereviseduniversalsoillossequationruslemodel
AT johnobiero soillossassessmentusingthereviseduniversalsoillossequationruslemodel
AT christianomuto soillossassessmentusingthereviseduniversalsoillossequationruslemodel