Predicting soil erosion by water : a guide to conservation planning with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE)

Abstract

Renard, K.G., G.R. Foster, G.A. Weesies, D.K. McCool, and D.C. Yoder, coordinators. Predicting Soil Erosion by Water: A Guide to Conservation Planning With the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Handbook No. 703, 404 pp. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is an erosion model predicting longtime average annual soil loss (A) resulting from raindrop splash and runoff from specific field slopes in specified cropping and management systems and from rangeland. Widespread use has substantiated the RUSLE’s usefulness and validity. RUSLE retains the six factors of Agriculture Handbook No. 537 to calculate A from a hillslope. Technology for evaluating these factor values has been changed and new data added. The technology has been computerized to assist calculation. Thus soil-loss evaluations can be made for conditions not included in the previous handbook using fundamental information available in three data bases: CITY, which includes monthly precipitation and temperature, front-free period, annual rainfall erosivity (R) and twice monthly distributions of storm erosivity (E); CROP, including below-ground biomass, canopy cover, and canopy height at 15-day intervals as well as information on crop characteristics; and OPERATION, reflecting soil and cover disturbances that are associated with typical farming operations.

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