Assessment of erosion in Arhavi Kapisre Watershed using the wepp erosion prediction model

The study area of Arhavi Kapisre Stream Basin (AKDH) is located in the northeast of the Eastern Black Sea Region, within the borders of Artvin province. This study was carried out in an integrated manner with the laboratory and field studies of the Protect-Streams-4-Sea project, coded BSB963, under the program title of Joint Operational Programme Black Sea 2014-2020 EU projects, carried out at AKDH. In the study, the GeoWEPP erosion prediction model was run and the soil loss caused by erosion, sediment yield, soil loss per unit area and runoff were calculated in the waterhed, which consists of an area of 29913.89 hectares. The study area was divided into 17 sub-catchments and the program was run separately for each sub-catchment. Estimated erosion values were examined for each sub-catchment and for the total watershed. Erosion data produced by the model were compared with the erosion values obtained in field studies within the scope of the BSB963 project. As a result of the study, outcome of the 20-year simulation run in AKDH, the total average annual sediment yield was calculated as 26846.8 tons/yr. The average sediment delivery ratio of 17 sub-basins is 0.259 and the sediment yield per unit area is 0,641 tons/ha/yr. While the area-weighted SDR of the sub-basins is 0.150, the weighted sediment yield per unit area is 1,066 tons/ha/year. The total annual average soil erosion on the hillslopes is 8648.6 tons/yr and the annual average soil loss per unit area of 17 sub-basins is 0,74 tons/ha/yr, the total annual average soil erosion in the channels is 170466.7 tons/yr and the annual average soil loss per unit area of 17 sub-basins is 2,55 tons/ha/yr and amount of runoff was found 139,99 mm. The highest sediment yield was detected in the Mera sub-catchment with 18739.8 tons/yr (% 69.8), and the lowest sediment yield was determined in the Gürgencik sub-catchment with 123.9 (%0.5) tons/yr. doldurulacaktır