Assessment of soil erosion in Eber Basin, Afyonkarahisar

This study aims to present the sites in the study area with soil lossas well as the amount and level of soil loss and on these sites using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and Geographical Information System (GIS).Fort this purpose, Eber Lake Basin which spans an area of 780 km2 in the province of Afyonkarahisar was chosen as the study area.In selecting this area, factors such as lithology and soil properties, higher level of elevation difference, and overly destructed vegetation of Eber Lake and its surrounding were significant. RUSLE method deals with and revises the group of parameters that make up the equation. These are rainfall and run-off factor (R), soil erodibility factor (K), slope length and steepness factor (LS), vegetation/cover factor (C) and soil conservation factor (P). In the field survey, data were collected for each of these factors. Then they were brought together in GIS environment where GIS tools such as data input,.analysis and presentation preparation were utilized. Each of the RUSLE factors that will form a basis forthis study was digitized in GIS and five different thematic layers were obtained using the data collected in the field study. All layers were then converted to raster format for further analysis. In the final stage, a resulting map was produced by overlaying the layers representing each factor. As a result, potential risk class maps for Eber Lake Basin were created by dividing into five classes according to potential soil loss values. With regards to soil erosion potential,the erosion risk in Eber Basin varies in five classes from 0 to 85 tons/ha/year. In Eber Lake Basin, %28 very light, %13 light, 14% moderate, 14% severe and 12% very severe erosion risks were observed. Keywords:Geography,Eber Basin, Afyonkarahisar, RUSLE, Geographical Information System, Soil Erosion