Water erosion mapping using several erosivity factors in the Macta Basin (North-West of Algeria)

Abstract

The quantification of the water erosion using empirical models has been applied for several regions around the world. Indeed, the model proposed by Wischmeier and Smith also called RUSLE model remains the most used approach. The main purpose of this work is to produce a soil losses vulnerability map of the Macta Basin and to determine its water erosivity potential, taking into account four rainfall erosivity indices that have been widely applied in the Mediterranean regions namely: Arnoldus index, MFI Modified Fournier Index, Roose index and Rango-Arnoldus index. The calculation of soil losses with the RUSLE model gives respectively the values: 7.94, 13.98, 12.5 and 20.6 t ha -1 year -1 . By comparing with other basins of the same characteristics, we note a good correlation.