Tuesday, 8 November 2005 - 2:30 PM
190-2

Assessment of Soil Erosion Potential in Korea.

Kangho Jung, Seungoh Hur, Sangkeon Ha, Seokyoung Hong, and Yeonkyu Sonn. National Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, Suin-ro 150, Seodun-dong, Suwon, South Korea

Factors of Universal Soil Loss Equation, USLE and its revised version, RUSLE for Korean soils were reevaluated to estimate the national scale of soil loss based on digital soil maps. Rainfall erosivity factor, R, of 158 locations of cities and counties were spacially interpolated by the inverse distance weight method(IDW). Soil erodibility factor, K, of 1321 soil phases of 390 soil series were calculated using several references such as the data in the Introduction of Korean Soil(1992). Topographic factor, LS, was estimated using soil map of 1:25,000 scale with soil phase and land use type. Cover-management factors, C, of major crops and support practice factors, P, were summarized by analyzing the data from the lysimeter and field experiments for 27 years(1975~2001) at the National Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology(NIAST). R factor varied between 2322 and 6408 MJ mm ha-1 yr-1 hr-1 in Korea and the average value was 4276 MJ mm ha-1 yr-1 hr-1. The R factors were high in the southern coast and part of the western coast and low in the inland and eastern coast. The average K value in Korea was evaluated as 0.027 MT hr MJ-1 mm-1. K factor was high as 0.034 MT hr MJ-1 mm-1 in paddy rice field. It was mainly distributed in plain and valley-in land where particle size is fine. K factors in upland fields, grassland, and forest were 0.026, 0.019, and 0.020 MT hr MJ-1 mm-1, respectively. C factors of upland crops ranged from 0.06 to 0.45 and that of grassland was 0.003. P factor varied between 0.01 and 0.85. The soil erosion map of city/county of Korea were made based on digital soil maps with 1:25,000 scale.


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