1Department of Geography, Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania 2Romanian Academy, Department of Iași, Geography Group, Iași, Romania
Pages:
25 - 38
Abstract:
This study aims to estimate soil removal via sheet erosion in a
mountain catchment and highlight the stabilizing role of vegetation on
sloping land. Spatial representation of the results was performed through
the implementation of GIS techniques. The estimation method used is
ROMSEM, which is based on six factors that can be separated into two
groups, i.e. i) factors that trigger erosion (rainfall erosivity, topography, soils)
and ii) factors controlling erosion (vegetation, anti- erosion measures). These
factors constitute the database which generated the maps of potential and
effective soil erosion. Based on our results, mean potential erosion is very
high, 99.64 t ha-1 yr-1
respectively, and thereby falls into the severe erosion
class. Mean effective erosion indicates current soil loss and falls within the
insignificant erosion class, with 0.98 t ha-1 yr-1
, which suggests that at the
catchmentscale, soil is eroded at a rate of 7620 t yr-1