Issue Date
1994-01-01Keywords
soil physical propertiessediments
soil erosion
Universal Soil Loss Equation
Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation
water quality
rangelands
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Benkobi, L., Trlica, M. J., & Smith, J. L. (1994). Evaluation of a refined surface cover subfactor for use in RUSLE. Journal of Range Management, 47(1), 74-78.Publisher
Society for Range ManagementJournal
Journal of Range ManagementDOI
10.2307/4002845Additional Links
https://rangelands.org/Abstract
Concern for nonpoint source pollution from rangelands has increased the need to monitor and predict amounts of soil erosion that may enter streams from adjacent rangelands. This study was undertaken to evaluate a refined surface cover subfactor (RSC) developed for the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) to simulate soil loss from rangelands as affected by various kinds and amounts of surface cover. In addition, sensitivity analysis indicated which variables most influenced erosion from a sagebrushgrass rangeland (Johnson and Gordon 1988). Evaluation of the RSC was done by comparing original RUSLE estimates of soil loss with those of RUSLE where the surface cover subfactor (SC) had been replaced with RSC. Estimated soil loss from both simulations were compared with field measurements of soil loss using a simple regression technique. Refined RUSLE predictions of soil loss (r2 = 0.81 and 0.50 for dry and moist conditions) were considerably better than those obtained with the original RUSLE model (r2 = 0.67 and 0.14 for dry and moist conditions). The refined RUSLE was better at describing Johnson and Gordon (1988) erosion data than was the original RUSLE model. Use of RSC in the RUSLE model may increase its accuracy, but the model still underpredicts the actual amount of soil loss.Type
textArticle
Language
enISSN
0022-409Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.2307/4002845