Soil Loss Analysis of North Fork Kentucky River Basin Utilizing the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE)

Soil erosion, the removal of topsoil by water, wind, or tillage, is a key geomorphic process that reshapes landscapes and threatens agricultural productivity, water quality, and ecosystem stability. This study applies the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) within ArcGIS Pro to estimate annual soil loss and identify erosion-prone areas in the largely forested North Fork Kentucky River basin (∼3,430 km2), situated in the eastern Appalachian region of Kentucky. Although RUSLE is commonly applied in agricultural settings, its application to forest-dominated terrains remains less common and more uncertain due to limited ground-truth data and complex vegetation-soil interactions. We integrated high-resolution geospatial datasets, including LiDAR-derived topography, Sentinel-2 imagery, PRISM rainfall, and land use/land cover data to parameterize RUSLE model inputs: rainfall erosivity (R), soil erodibility (K), slope length and steepness (LS), cover management (C), and conservation practices (P). Model results show that 74% of the basin experiences low erosion rates (<10 Mg ha–1 yr–1), with an average soil loss of 11.4 Mg ha–1 yr–1. However, localized areas show elevated erosion risk, with maximum predicted values exceeding 100 Mg ha–1 yr–1, particularly on steep slopes with sparse winter vegetation. The total modeled soil loss across the basin is estimated at approximately 3.89 million Mg yr–1. Areas with high LS, low NDVI (vegetation cover), and elevated soil erodibility values were identified as erosion hotspots. This study provides a spatially explicit, first-pass erosion risk assessment for a forested watershed using RUSLE, offering a valuable foundation for targeted field validation, sediment monitoring, and future conservation planning.