Assessment of soil loss in South Korea based on land-cover type

Soil loss poses a significant threat to the long-term sustainability of hydrological systems, the environment, and agriculture. In this regard, efficient soil management relies on accurate quantification of soil loss. To this end, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) standard of soil erosion, developed for agricultural areas, has been applied in many countries, including South Korea. Due to the lack of standard methods for assessing soil erosion in South Korea, the OECD standard has been applied to non-agricultural regions of Korea despite the possibility that local soil erosion characteristics may differ from those in agricultural areas. Such an approach might give erroneous information on soil loss to policy and decision makers. This study estimated soil loss for eight different land cover-types in Korea using the universal soil loss equation, and compared the results with those from the unmodified OECD soil erosion standard. Estimated soil loss differed considerably among land-cover types. The results have implications on the limitations in applying the OECD soil erosion standard to soil management in Korea. Thus, this study suggests a modified soil erosion standard for efficient soil management.