Method Factsheet - Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RULSE)

The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is an empirical erosion model recognised as a standard method to calculate the average risk of erosion on arable land. It developed from the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) developed in the US Department of Agriculture and has other similar variants such as the Modified USLE (MUSLE) and ABAG (Allgemeine Bodenabtragsgleichung = 'General Soil Loss' in German). As all these models use similar algorithms and produce comparable results, we focus on RUSLE here. The method is efficient in terms of costs for data provision, model parameterisation and modelling. The results of the RUSLE model can also be coupled with the SITE land use model.

Ecosystems

Cropland

Constraints

RUSLE is used to estimate the average long-term risk of erosion on arable land. It is not designed for modeling soil erosion and sediment transport under individual rainfall events.
Due to the relatively simple empirical approach, the typical erosion processes such as splash erosion, soil transport and soil deposition are not considered as a dynamic process.
Antecedent soil moisture and soil stratification are not considered.

Product requirements

The following input data are required as GIS datasets: Average annual precipitation (raster dataset)
Digital soil map with information regarding the top soil layer
Digital Elevation Model (DEM)

Advantages

RUSLE provides international applicability and comparability of the results and methods, as the method has been adapted to and applied in many world regions.
The results are plausible in terms of assessing risks of water erosion.
The algorithms can be implemented based on literature values or adapted to empirical / statistical data by using standard GIS software.

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