Quantitative estimation of soil erosion in the Larga catchment - Tigheci Hills

Abstract

Soil erosion is a severe form of soil degradation. Factors influencing this process, produced by water and wind on the soil surface, do not act in isolation, but in a complex and interdependent manner. For quantitative estimation of soil erosion, it was applied the universal soil loss equation, adapted by Moțoc et al. (1975) for soil and climate conditions of Romania. The input data were the digital terrain model, soils and land use maps. Rainfall erosivity was considered constant. Soil erodibility was determined based on soil type, texture and degree of surface erosion. Vegetation influence was quantified based the normalized difference vegetation index derived from Landsat images. These erosion control factors were derived in raster format, from their integration resulting the estimated potential and actual
surface erosion.