IDENTIFICAÇÃO DAS ÁREAS VULNERÁVEIS À EROSÃO A PARTIR DO EMPREGO DA EUPS – EQUAÇÃO UNIVERSAL DE PERDAS DE SOLOS NO MUNICÍPIO DE RIACHÃO DAS NEVES – BA.

Abstract

The high soil loss in tropical environment requires the development of methodologies to identify the most vulnerable areas for erosion, in order to reduce its effects. The lack of systematic measurements of soil erosion due to high cost can be mitigated by landscape dynamics simulations usually developed in Geographic Information Systems. In Ecological and Economic Zoning (EEZ) is adopted a methodology for estimating the vulnerability to soil loss using a weighted average of the environmental and land use factors. In this paper, we propose the use of Equation Universal Soil Loss (EUPS), the most widely used model developed to predict the annual rate of erosion. However, USLE needs of consistent information for a reliable quantitative estimate, which does not exist for most regions of Brazil. Despite such data limitation, the use of the USLE is appropriate for the EEZ study in a qualitative approach, highlighting the areas more or less vulnerable. The aim of this paper is to apply the USLE in the Riachão das Neves (BA) municipality in order to identify vulnerable areas to soil loss. The methodology proved to be adequate and demonstrates that the most vulnerable areas are located on sites with steep slopes and agricultural use in karst valleys.