ARS | Publication request: A COMPARISON OF WEPP AND RUSLE TECHNOLOGIES FOR SOIL LOSS ON UNIFORM SLOPES

Submitted to: American Society of Agricultural Engineers Meetings Papers
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: December 5, 1995
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is primarily an empirically-based erosion prediction and assessment technology. It was developed from many thousands of plot-years of soil loss data from natural rainfall and runoff experiments, many different rainfall simulator experiments, and computer simulations of the CREAMS erosion model. The RUSLE relationships between soil loss and climate, soil, management, and slope represent reliable trends for a broad range of data. The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model is more process- based, and includes many interactions which are not found in RUSLE. This study was undertaken to determine if the WEPP model as applied to the case of soil loss on uniformly sloped plots followed the general trends described by RUSLE, and to investigate differences between the two types of technology. Results indicated that WEPP follows most of the basic functional relationships describing soil loss as does RUSLE, but some differences are documented and discussed. In general, WEPP displays more interdependence between factors affecting erosion than does RUSLE.