Application of GIS tools for Leça River Basin soil erosion (Northern Portugal) evaluation

Abstract

Applying GIS-based RUSLE methodology, the main goal of the present study is to forecast soil loss and identify areas of high erosion potential in the Leça River Basin, located in Northern Portugal. The rasterlayered model was structured in ArcGIS for two different scales: grid cell sizes of 10 and 30 meters. The average annual soil loss in Leça River Basin was estimated at 33.2 t/ha, which produces a sediment yield of 52 000 m3/year. It was also estimated that 31% of the basin could be classified as areas of moderate erosion risk with annual soil loss of between 12 and 50 t/ha, 18% classified as areas of severe erosion risk and 51% as areas of low erosion risk. © 2009 WIT Press.