Integrated Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing for Soil Erosion Assessment by Using Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE): Case Study in Son La Province

Abstract

Son La is a mountainous province in the North of Vietnam with complicated terrain, high slope, rugged and fragmentation terrain. Mountainous land occupies 92% of the natural area, in which land with sloping over 15 degrees occupies 67% of natural land area, erosion is the main cause of soil degradation. The result shows that the average soil loss due to erosion in Son La province is 30.04 tons/ha/year. On the level of erosion, soil erosion is very low (&gt; 50 tons/ha/year) accounts for a large proportion with the area and the percentage respectively is 51,223.60 ha, occupying 38.74% of the natural area and 45,424.45 ha accounting for 34.36% of the natural area. Then there is low level (1-5 tons/ha/year) with an area of 19,462.78 hectares, accounting for 14.72% of the natural area. Moderate (5-10 tons/ha/year) and high (10-50 tons/ha/year) levels account for a small proportion of 7,488.48 hectares, accounting for 5.66% and 8,611.23 hectares, accounting for 6.51%, respectively, of the natural area. The combination of remote sensing, geographic information system and RUSLE with available data can calculate soil erosion, spatial distribution, and area, initial testing of the model results and actual observation shows the disparity low (<4,3%).

Keywords

Soil erosion, Soil degradation, Remote sensing, GIS, Terrain, Son La.

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