Assessment of soil erosion potential by the usle method: case study, Republic of Srpska - BiH

Abstract

Soil erosion is a global problem, with severe consequences for the environment, human society and economy. In most cases, this process is caused by natural forces, but some human activities also contribute to soil erosion. The USLE is an erosion model which estimates average soil loss that would generally result from splash, sheet and rill erosion. Use of USLE has been extended as a useful tool for predicting soil losses and planning control practices by the effective integration of GIS-based procedures for estimation of factor values on a grid cell basis. In this paper, as a result of GIS layers-overlapping is a map of soil erosion for the study area of Republic of Srpska, and estimation soil erosion rate. The results will be taken into consideration during analysis of choosing the simple and efficient erosion prediction model for agricultural resources management and land planning which would be used in Republic of Srpska. We obtained an average of 5.13 t/ha/year of potential erosion in the study area, and 52.46 % of the territory had an erosion rate of lt 2 t/ha/year. The estimations of soil loss of >15 t/ha/year are inherent in 7.28 % of the study area. The basic objective of this paper was to provide a regionalisation of the territory of Republic of Srpska according to the level of the soil erosion risk. This is the first version of the soil erosion risk map with the USLE methodology in Republic of Srpska.