Applied and Environmental Soil Science

Review Article

Soil Loss Assessment Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Model

Table 3

LS factor algorithms.
EquationReferenceSerial number
,
where
LS = topographical factor
Qa = flow accumulation grid
 = grid slope in percentage
M = grid size (vertical length × horizontal length) y = a constant, which depends on the slope gradient
0.5 for  ≥ 4.5%
0.4 for 3 ≤  < 4.5%
0.3 for 1 ≤  < 3%
0.2 for  < 1%		Wischmeier and Smith [55]21
,
where
LS = topographic factor
Cell size = grid size		Moore and Burch [109]22
,
,
,
,
,
where
λ= length of the slope
β = ratio of rill to interill erosion (the conditions of the soil makes it moderately susceptible to both)
Lfactor = slope length factor
Sfactor = slope steepness factor		McCool et al. [110]23
,
where
 = contributing area at the grid cell’s inlet (m2)
D = grid cell size (m)
contour length (sin aij + cos aij)
aij = grid cell’s aspect direction
m = standard slope exponent
Desmet and Govers [111]24
,
where
Flow accumulation = raster of flow accumulated to each cell
Grid size = cell size
Sin (slope) = sin of the slope degree value		Mitasova et al. [112]25