Natural Erosion Potential of Soils in the State of Paraíba using GIS

Abstract

This work estimated the Natural Erosion Potential using the K, R and S Factors for the lands of the State of Paraíba. A digital altimetry mosaic was used and the slope (S) was generated using QGIS© and the soil erodibility (K) was determined for the granulometric parameters M and the soil permeability P based on the information contained in the representative profiles of the Soil Bulletins of the State of Paraíba and the Agricultural Zoning of the State of Paraíba. The rainfall erosivity (R) was used rainfall records of 125 stations from the period 1940 to 1994 with series of 30 years of record of climatically homogeneous regions was converted the values of daily precipitation (P) into values of erosivity (EI30) and specialized using kriging. The Natural Erosion Potential (PNE) was estimated by the product of the K, R and S parameters using geoprocessing techniques. According to the results, the S factor had less influence on the natural erosion potential in relation to the R factors with 38.79% in the middle class and K with 31.03% in the upper class. The results portrayed with reasonable fidelity the current state of the land and demonstrated that the natural erosion potential ranged from 50 to 250 Mg ha-1 year-1 in 59.63% of the area and are associated with Neosols, Luvisols and Argisols.