Modeling the impacts of no-till practice on soil erosion and sediment yield with RUSLE, SEDD, and ArcView GIS

• Published in: Soil & tillage research 2006, Vol.85 (1), p.38-49
• Main Authors: Fu, Guobin, Chen, Shulin, McCool, Donald K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ArcView GIS; computer software; equations; erosion control; geographic information systems; mathematical models; no-tillage; No-tillage practices; Pataha Creek Watershed; Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation; rill erosion; RUSLE; sediment delivery distributed model; Sediment yield; Soil erosion; watersheds
• ISSN: 0167-1987; 1879-3444
• DOI: 10.1016/j.still.2004.11.009

The revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE), the sediment delivery distributed (SEDD) model, and ArcView GIS were used to estimate the impacts of no-till practice on soil erosion and sediment yield in Pataha Creek Watershed, a typical dryland agricultural watershed in southeastern Washington. The results showed that the average cell soil loss decreased from 11.09 to 3.10 t/ha yr for the whole watershed and from 17.67 to 3.89 t/ha yr for the croplands under the no-till scenario. Likewise, the average cell sediment yield decreased from 4.71 to 1.49 t/ha yr for the entire watershed and from 7.11 to 1.55 t/ha yr for the croplands under no-till practices. The major reason why no-till practice can significantly reduce the soil erosion and sediment yield is that it prevents rill generation which through rill erosion ultimately contributes up to 90% of the soil erosion in the Inland Pacific Northwest region.