Analysis of soil erosion risk on Değirmen Creek Basin (Bolvadin-Afyonkarahisar)

The purpose of this study is to assess annual soil loss using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques. The study area is located in (Afyonkarahisar Province) Değirmen Dere basin an area of about 330 km². The reasons are why the Değirmen Dere basin chosen the facts that these plains are a typical agricultural region and heavily damaged by soil erosion.RUSLE is widely used to predict annual soil loss. The RUSLE is factor-basedmodel and each factor was produced as map layer. The R-factor (rainfall) was developed from annual precipitation data using Modified Fournier Index (MFI), K-factor (soil erodobility) was calculated from soil samples collected from study areas, LSfactors (topography) were developed from a 10 m digital elevation model (DEM), and C-factor (land use/cover) data was generated from Landsat-5 TM images. All data were integrated GIS environment and data input, processing, analysis, display and output tools of GIS were used.Finally potential soil erosion risk maps were obtained from potential soil erosion risk values of each basin. Particularly, LS-factor, rather than other factors, had a greater influence on the magnitude of soil loss in the both basins The highest soil loss values are associated with the steepest slopes on basin. Generated soil loss maps are able to indicate high risk areas soil conservationist and decision maker.