Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers (한국농공학회논문집)

The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers (한국농공학회)
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A Study to Determine the Slope Length and Steepness Factor of Universal Soil Loss Equation with Determining and Adapting Major Slope Length at Field Scale

필지 단위 주경사장 산정 및 적용을 통한 범용토양유실공식 지형인자 산정 개선 연구

  • Park, Youn Shik (Department of Rural Construction Engineering, Kongju National University) ;
  • Park, Jong-Yoon (Environmental Assessment Group, Korea Environment Institute) ;
  • Jang, Won Seok (The Sustainability Innovation Lab, University of Colorado Boulder) ;
  • Kim, Jonggun (Department of Regional Infrastructures Engineering, Kangwon National University)
  • Received : 2019.08.26
  • Accepted : 2019.10.21
  • Published : 2019.11.30
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Abstract

Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is to estimate potential soil loss and has benefit in use with its simplicity. The equation is composed of five factors, one of the factors is the slope length and steepness factor (LS factor) that is for topographic property of fields to estimate potential soil loss. Since the USLE was developed, many equations to compute LS was suggested with field measurement. Nowadays the factor is often computed in GIS software with digital elevation model, however it was reported that the factor is very sensitive to the resolution of digital elevation model. In addition, the digital elevation model of high resolution less than 3 meter is required in small field application, however these inputs are not associate with the empirical models' backgrounds since the empirical models were derived in 22.1 meter field measurements. In the study, four equation to compute LS factor and two approaches to determine slope length and steepness were examined, and correction factor was suggested to provide reasonable precision in LS estimations. The correction factor is computed with field area and cell size of digital elevation model, thus the correction factor can be adapted in any USLE-based models using LS factor at field level.

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References

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