Improved RUSLE model to simulate the effect of slope forest area on soil and water conservation

Abstract

The problem of soil and water loss on slope land has always been one of the key issues that people pay attention to. How to reasonably arrange tree species and planting methods can effectively improve the current situation of water loss and soil erosion. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model is a widely used soil erosion prediction model, but it does not consider the impact of tree height and crown size on soil erosion. In this paper, six experimental plots of soil and water conservation were carried out on the forest slope land in southern China. Six experimental plots were planted with different trees, and all kinds of data were collected for 3 years. On the basis of data analysis and machine learning methods, it is found that tree height and crown have a significant impact on soil erosion, but have no significant impact on runoff formation. With the growth of trees, the amount of soil loss in each plot gradually decreases. At the same time, an improved RUSLE model related to tree height and crown has been established, which has a high simulation effect (R2 of testing reaches 0.6775, R2 of all data reaches 0.5452).