Soil erosion factors in the macroregion of the European part of Russia: modeling, geoinformation mapping and spatial analysis

A new quantitative assessment of the factors of soil erosion and its intensity from storm and melt runoff was carried out in most of the European part of Russia for 2014–2019. Assessment is based on the universal soil loss equation USLE/RUSLE with spatial resolution 250 m. The results are generalized and cartographically presented in the geosystems of small river basins. A new approach has been developed for modeling the rainfall erosivity (R-factor) using intra-daily precipitation data. A rainfall erosivity model was developed using the GAM method and explained 87% of the data variability. A new methodology has been developed for detecting the cover management factor (C-factor) based on Earth remote sensing data. New results on the C-factor were obtained based on multi-temporal satellite data on vegetation density, spectral vegetation indices and phenological metrics. Snow Water Equivalent data from the Copernicus program was used as current data on water reserves in snow to determine the intensity of soil erosion from melt runoff. The annual intensity of soil erosion (from rain and melt runoff) throughout the entire territory is insignificant: on average 0.6 t/ha per year, median 0.02 t/ha per year. On the plowed lands of the basins, these values are higher: 2.4 t/ha per year and 1.6 t/ha per year, respectively.