Quantitative estimation of soil surface erosion in a mountain catchment (Gemenea, Eastern Carpathians)

Abstract

This study aims to estimate soil removal via sheet erosion in a mountain catchment and highlight the stabilizing role of vegetation on sloping land. Spatial representation of the results was performed through the implementation of GIS techniques. The estimation method used is ROMSEM, which is based on six factors that can be separated into two groups, i.e. i) factors that trigger erosion (rainfall erosivity, topography, soils) and ii) factors controlling erosion (vegetation, anti-erosion measures). These factors constitute the database which generated the maps of potential and effective soil erosion. Based on our results, mean potential erosion is very high, 99.64 t ha^-1 yr^-1 respectively, and thereby falls into the severe erosion class. Mean effective erosion indicates current soil loss and falls within the insignificant erosion class, with 0.98  t ha^-1 yr^-1 , which suggests that at the catchment scale, soil is eroded at a rate of 7620 t yr^-1