Calibrating the USLE P-factor using program FLUVIAL-12

Excerpt

The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) has been the underpinning of numerous research efforts in understanding and describing soil erosion. The USLE is referred to in several papers and books and is fundamental to advances in estimating and predicting soil loss and soil erosion. A complete literature review would include many publications but may begin with the work of Walter H. Wischmeier, resulting in a series of publications (Wischmeier and Smith 1962; Wischmeier 1972, 1976) that are typically referenced in numerous publications that deal with soil erosion topics today. The more recent methodologies, including Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE), Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), and RUSLE2 (Foster and Highfill 1983; Laflen and Moldenhauer 2003; and Toy et al. 1999) are based on the USLE and include additional features that further analyze particular aspects of the soil erosion process.

In the current paper, a particular component of USLE (as well as MUSLE, RUSLE, and RUSLE2) is focused on the P-factor that represents the reduction in soil erosion that escapes from the study area (or off field) due to the effects of soil conservation measures such as terracing or proper ditch placement among other techniques such as tilling, contouring, and…