Assessment of Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) in Katsina Area, Katsina State of Nigeria using Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS)

The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) parameters were assessed using Satellite Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS with a view to model soil erosion in Katsina area of Katsina State of Nigeria. Data on parameters such as slope factors, crop cover and management practice support (P) were obtained from obtained for Katsina area for Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Landsat ETM +, 2002 of the area. The estimated potential mean annual soil loss of 17.35 ton/ac/yr based on the refined RUSLE was obtained for the study area. Also, the potential erosion rates from the erosion classes identified ranged from 0.0 to 4185.12 ton/ac/yr. About 65.47% of the study area was classified under the first class with erosion rate between 0.0 and 10 ton/ac/yr. The most severely eroded area with rates of erosion between 104.80 and 4,185.12 ton/ac/yr accounted for about 1.86% of the study area. On the whole, this study has demonstrated the significance of Satellite (RS) and GIS technologies in modeling erosion.