Soil Loss Assessment Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Model

Many catchment areas have suffered from exhaustive changes because of various land use activities over the recent past. These land use changes are associated with intensified environmental degradation witnessed in catchment areas. Such environmental problems include extreme soil erosion. Soil erosion is one of the most critical problems responsible for the degradation of land worldwide. This phenomenon occurs as a result of the complex interactions that exist between natural and human-induced factors. Most factors experience spatiotemporal variations, hence complicating the soil erosion phenomenon. This complexity in the erosion process makes it difficult to quantify soil loss. Without proper information on soil loss, it becomes quite hard for decision-makers and managers to manage catchment areas. However, the availability of soil erosion models has made it easy to estimate soil loss. Many models have been developed to consider these complexities in soil erosion studies. Empirical models such as RUSLE provide a simple and broad methodology through which soil erosion is assessed. The RUSLE model integrates well geographic information system (GIS) and above all remote sensing. This paper presents an overview of the developmental milestones in estimating soil loss using the RUSLE model. The parameterization of the RUSLE model has been adequately reviewed with much emphasis on challenges and successes in derivation of each individual factor. From the review, it was established that different equations have been developed by researchers for modeling the five factors for the RUSLE model. The development of such equations was found to take into account the different variations that depict the soil erosion process.