Integrating a GIS and Remote Sensing Approach in the Agricultural Conservation Decision Support Tool for Soil Erosion Estimation

Highlights Assessment of soil erosion is useful in planning best management practices (BMPs) at the field and watershed scales. This study incorporated the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) model with a Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) data to develop and demonstrate a component of the Agricultural Conservation Decision Support Tool (AgConDST). The tool sub-component software package in the AgConDST can accurately identify sediment source areas and estimate soil erosion from various catchments. These USLE and GIS sub-tool components of the AgConDST can effectively identify the high and low erosion-prone zones and consequently aid in the implementation of soil management and conservation practices to reduce soil erosion. ABSTRACT. Severe soil erosion due to intensified agriculture and other anthropogenic activities is a major contributor to land degradation. Landscape modeling can provide quantitative and consistent estimates of soil erosion under a wide range of conditions for planning best management practices at the field- and watershed-scale. This study incorporated the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) model with a Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) data to develop and demonstrate a component of the Agricultural Conservation Decision Support Tool (AgConDST). This component of the AgConDST was developed to identify sediment source areas and estimate soil erosion from various catchments. The catchments were discretized into hydrologically homogeneous grid cells to capture the catchment heterogeneity. Gross soil erosion in each cell was then calculated using the USLE by carefully determining its various parameters. This USLE- and GIS-based sub-tool component of the AgConDST can effectively identify high and low erosion-prone zones and consequently aid in the implementation of soil conservation practices. Keywords: Agricultural conservation decision support tool (AgConDST), Best management practice (BMP), Soil erosion, Universal soil loss equation (USLE).