The assessment of soil erosion risk and soil loss estimation: the case of Burundi

The main objective of this study was to assess the soil erosion risk using the Coordination of Information of the Environment (CORINE) and Soil Loss Estimation Model for South Africa (SLEMSA) for Burundian soils. The CORINE model was used to produce actual and potential soil erosion risk maps, while the SLEMSA model was used to produce the map and to estimate the soil loss quantity in tons/ha/yr. Using the Remote Sensing and Geographic information system, for the CORINE model, soil texture, depth, stoniness, climate, and land use/land cover were overlaid. For SLEMSA, crop ration (C), erodibility (K) and topographic ration (X) was overlaid. The results showed that 19.30% of the study area was under low potential erosion risk, 73.50% was under moderate erosion risk and 7.20% of the study area was under high erosion risk. The actual soil erosion situation showed that 69.6% was under low erosion, 22.4% was under moderate erosion and 0.40% under high soil erosion. The SLEMSA model showed that a big part of Burundi is under moderate erosion with 64,4% of the study area. The soil loss in this area is between 100 and 250 t/ha/yr. It showed also that 23.4% of the study area was under high erosion with the soil loss which is between 250 and 500 t/ha/yr. As the result, the comparison of the CORINE and SLEMSA models in assessment of soil erosion in Burundi showed that the SLEMSA model is highly sensitive to soil erosion than the CORINE model.