Comparison of the Applicability of Different Soil Erosion Models to Predict Soil Erodibility Factor and Event Soil Losses on Loess Slopes in Hungary

• Published in: Water (Basel) 2021-12, Vol.13 (24), p.3517
• Main Authors: Keller, Boglárka, Centeri, Csaba, Szabó, Judit Alexandra, Szalai, Zoltán, Jakab, Gergely
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Climate change; Hungary; Loess; Modelling; Nonpoint source pollution; Rain; Rainfall; Root-mean-square errors; Runoff; Simulation; Soil conservation; Soil erosion; Water pollution
• ISSN: 2073-4441; 2073-4441
• DOI: 10.3390/w13243517

Climate change induces more extreme precipitation events, which increase the amount of soil loss. There are continuous requests from the decision-makers in the European Union to provide data on soil loss; the question is, which ones should we use? The paper presents the results of USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation), RUSLE (Revised USLE), USLE-M (USLE-Modified) and EPIC (Erosion-Productivity Impact Calculator) modelling, based on rainfall simulations performed in the Koppány Valley, Hungary. Soil losses were measured during low-, moderate- and high-intensity rainfalls on cultivated soils formed on loess. The soil erodibility values were calculated by the equations of the applied soil erosion models and ranged from 0.0028 to 0.0087 t ha h ha−1 MJ−1 mm−1 for the USLE-related models. EPIC produced larger values. The coefficient of determination resulted in an acceptable correlation between the measured and calculated values only in the case of USLE-M. Based on other statistical indicators (e.g., NSEI, RMSE, PBIAS and relative error), RUSLE, USLE and USLE-M resulted in the best performance. Overall, regardless of being non-physically based models, USLE-type models seem to produce accurate soil erodibility values, thus modelling outputs.