Development and application of modern soil erosion prediction technology - The USDA experience

Abstract

Erosion prediction efforts are described to provide a synopsis of the USDA's experience in developing and applying soil erosion prediction technology in its research and development activities and its soil conservation programs. For almost five decades, equations to predict soil erosion by water have been useful m developing plans for controlling soil erosion and sedimentation. The Universal Soil Low Equation (USLE) is the most widely known and used of the erosion prediction equations. The USLE presents a simply understood and easily applied technology which has been of incalculable benefit to soil conservation and land management. The Chemicals, Runoff, and Erosion from Agricultural Management Systems Model (CREAMS) contains a sophisticated erosion component based, in part, on the USLE and on flow hydraulics and the processes of sediment detachment, transport, and deposition. In 1985, the USDA in cooperation with BLM and several universities initiated a national project called the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) to develop a next generation water erosion prediction technology. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is an update of the USLE to improve erosion prediction in the interim before WEPP is adopted and to provide and adjunct technology thereafter.