Numerical Modelling of Soil Erosion on Cephalonia Island, Greece Using Geographical Information Systems and the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE)

Proceedings

Minetos, Panagiotis¹  Xanthakis, Michail²  Lisitsa, Georgia³ 

[1] Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.;Management Body of Mt. Aenos National Park, Koutavos Environmental Center, 28100 Argostoli, Cephalonia Island, Greece;Presented at the 3rd EWaS International Conference on “Insights on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus”, Lefkada Island, Greece, 27–30 June 2018

关键词: soil erosion;    RUSLE;    GIS;    Spatial Analysis;    Cephalonia Isl;    Greece;   

DOI  :  10.3390/proceedings2110618

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Soil erosion on Cephalonia Island, Greece has been identified as a predominating land degradation process and a major threat to the sustainability of the agricultural sector. In the present work, the evolution of soil erosion on the island was estimated for the years 2000 and 2012. A simple empirical model, the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) for modeling soil erosion, was applied in a Geographical Information System (GIS). The results indicate that the mean annual soil erosion was estimated to be 12.78 t/ha for the year 2000 and 12.28 t/ha for the year 2012. Further, 38.24% of the area of Cephalonia demonstrated moderate to significantly high soil erosion in the year 2012 compared to 40.55% in year 2000. We can assume that during the period 2000–2012, despite influences on the natural environment including forest fires and overgrazing, the combination of vegetation and other protective soil factors contributed to reducing soil erosion.

【 授权许可】

CC BY