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Factors affecting soil erosion. Climate. The amount and intensity of precipitation is the main climatic factor governing soil erosion by water.
The USLE was developed from erosion plot and rainfall simulator experiments. The USLE is composed of six factors to predict the long-term average annual soil loss (A). The equation includes the rainfall erosivity factor (R), the soil erodibility factor (K), the topographic factors (L and S), and the cropping management factors (C and P). The ...
In such situations, rainfall amount rather than intensity is the main factor determining the severity of soil erosion by water. [17] According to the climate change projections, erosivity will increase significantly in Europe and soil erosion may increase by 13–22.5% by 2050 [62]
Soil erosion is the main factor for soil degradation and is due to several mechanisms: water erosion, wind erosion, chemical degradation and physical degradation. Erosion can be influenced by human activity. For example, roads which increase impermeable surfaces lead to streaming and ground loss.
where R is the rainfall erosivity factor, K is the soil erodibility, [3] [4] L and S are topographic factors representing length and slope, and C and P are cropping management factors. Other factors such as the stone content (referred as stoniness), which acts as protection against soil erosion, are very significant in Mediterranean countries.
Environmental factors such as temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, elevation, wind, the speed of light at higher elevations if using lasers or time of flight measurements, instrument drift, [26] chemical erosion, and for cosmogenic isotopes, climate and snow or glacier coverage. [31]
Soil piping is a particular form of soil erosion that occurs below the soil surface. [237] It causes levee and dam failure, as well as sink hole formation. Turbulent flow removes soil starting at the mouth of the seep flow and the subsoil erosion advances up-gradient. [238]
Factors that can trigger slope failure include hydrologic events (such as intense or prolonged rainfall, rapid snowmelt, progressive soil saturation, increase of water pressure within the slope), earthquakes (including aftershocks), internal erosion (piping), surface or toe erosion, artificial slope loading (for instance due to the construction ...