IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v23y2021i8d10.1007_s10668-020-01133-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of C factor of USLE technique on the accuracy of soil erosion modeling in elevated mountainous area (case study: the Tibetan plateau)

Author

Listed:
  • Jihui Fan

    (CAS)

  • Artemis Motamedi

    (Technical University of Buein Zahra)

  • Majid Galoie

    (Imam Khomeini International University)

Abstract

The soil loss caused by rainfall-runoff process is a global issue which can decrease the lands fertility and increase the flood hazards. There are many different empirical relationships and numerical methods available for soil loss estimation. One of the most commonly used methods is the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), which is widely used to estimate the amount of annual rill erosion. The main aim of this paper was to evaluate the accuracy and applicability of the USLE method in the estimation of soil loss in elevated and rocky mountainous areas of Tibetan plateau. To do this, some of the observed and modeled soil loss data that were available in some Chinese researches, were selected. Land slope, soil type, land cover, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), aspect, monthly and annual rainfall and runoff maps from GIS were derived and investigated to calculate the USLE parameters. The results showed that the accuracy of the USLE model was decreased significantly in regions with high soil loss risk due to ignoring the rock properties and snow cover in K parameter. Also, the results showed that parameters which can decrease the soil loss significantly such as rock fragments content and low height vegetation have to be considered in NDVI calculation. Hence, it is recommended to improve the accuracy of the model by adjusting C factor for elevated mountainous areas based on the rock properties and snow cover which can be derived from the remote sensing maps.

Suggested Citation

  • Jihui Fan & Artemis Motamedi & Majid Galoie, 2021. "Impact of C factor of USLE technique on the accuracy of soil erosion modeling in elevated mountainous area (case study: the Tibetan plateau)," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 12615-12630, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:8:d:10.1007_s10668-020-01133-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-01133-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-020-01133-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-020-01133-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bor-Shiun Lin & Chun-Kai Chen & Kent Thomas & Chen-Kun Hsu & Hsing-Chuan Ho, 2019. "Improvement of the K-Factor of USLE and Soil Erosion Estimation in Shihmen Reservoir Watershed," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-16, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ammar Ak. Ali & Alaa M. Al-Abbadi & Fadhil K. Jabbar & Hassan Alzahrani & Samie Hamad, 2023. "Predicting Soil Erosion Rate at Transboundary Sub-Watersheds in Ali Al-Gharbi, Southern Iraq, Using RUSLE-Based GIS Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-14, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kieu Anh Nguyen & Walter Chen & Bor-Shiun Lin & Uma Seeboonruang & Kent Thomas, 2019. "Predicting Sheet and Rill Erosion of Shihmen Reservoir Watershed in Taiwan Using Machine Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-18, July.
    2. Kieu Anh Nguyen & Walter Chen & Bor-Shiun Lin & Uma Seeboonruang, 2020. "Using Machine Learning-Based Algorithms to Analyze Erosion Rates of a Watershed in Northern Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-16, March.
    3. Walter Chen & Wu-Hsun Wang & Kieu Anh Nguyen, 2022. "Soil Erosion and Deposition in a Taiwanese Watershed Using USPED," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Walter Chen & Kieu Anh Nguyen, 2022. "The New Island-Wide LS Factors of Taiwan, with Comparison with EU Nations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-11, March.
    5. Kent Thomas & Walter Chen & Bor-Shiun Lin & Uma Seeboonruang, 2020. "Evaluation of the SEdiment Delivery Distributed (SEDD) Model in the Shihmen Reservoir Watershed," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-21, August.
    6. Valter S. Marques & Marcos B. Ceddia & Mauro A. H. Antunes & Daniel F. Carvalho & Jamil A. A. Anache & Dulce B. B. Rodrigues & Paulo Tarso S. Oliveira, 2019. "USLE K-Factor Method Selection for a Tropical Catchment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-17, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:8:d:10.1007_s10668-020-01133-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.