Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

A GIS procedure for automatically calculating CSLE Equation LS factor in the Loess Plateau of China

Author(s):

Hongming Zhang ¹, Zhihong Yao ², Meili Wang ¹*, Qinke Yang ²*, Shuqin Li ¹*

Recieved Date: 2013-05-08, Accepted Date: 2013-10-11

Abstract:

Chinese Soil Loss Equation (CSLE) is extended from the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and the Revised USLE (RUSLE) which is a suitable soil erosion equation for Chinese soil environment. These equations are often used to estimate soil erosion at regional landscape scales, however a major limitation is the difficulty in extracting the LS factor. We are in urgent need of a solution for computing LS factor with a fast and convenient application software, especially in Fourth Chinese Soil Erosion General Survey. The geographic information system-based (GIS-based) methods which have been developed for estimating the LS factor for USLE and RUSLE also have limitations. The unit contributing area-based estimation method (UCA) converts slope length to unit contributing area for considering two-dimensional topography, however is not able to predict the different zones of soil erosion and deposition. The flowpath and cumulative cell length-based method (FCL) overcomes this disadvantage but does not consider the environment of China and cannot be applied easily. The purpose of this research was to overcome these limitations and extend the FCL method through Integrating CSLE equation. We developed LS-TOOL in Microsoft’s .NET environment using C# with a user-friendly interface. Comparing the LS factor calculated with the FCL method and manual method, LS factor values generated by using LS-TOOL method delivers improved results. The LS-TOOL algorithm can automatically calculate slope length, slope steepness, L factor, S factor and LS factors, providing the results as ASCII files which can be easily used in some GIS software. This study is an important step forward in conducting fast large-scale erosion evaluation.

Keywords:

RUSLE, CSLE, GIS, soil erosion, watershed modeling, LS factor

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2013
Volume: 11
Issue: 3&4
Category: Environment
Pages: 1631-1634

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