erosion rates

rainfall erosivity

erosion risk

tillage erosion

soil erodibility

runoff sediment

CATENA

• The map of soil erosion in the European part of Russia was created. • The annual soil erosion for the research territory is 4.58 t/ha per year. • The soil erosion decrease from the forest to the steppes zones. • Soil erosion of European Russia have differences from the EU territory. Prolonged and intensive agricultural exploitation in the European territory of Russia has resulted in extensive soil erosion, which has led to anthropogenically induced degradation of arable land. The extensive agricultural development of the region stems from the presence of plains suitable for plowing, which feature fertile chernozem (Luvic Chernozems) and grey forest (Luvisols) soils. The majority of the land in the small river basins (70–80%) are plowed. In addition, this macroregion of Russia is the main agricultural territory that provides food for the entire country. The total arable area comprises approximately 600,000 km 2 . Approximately 95 million people, the majority of the population of Russia, live in this region. This research aims to provide a quantitative assessment of the soil lost by erosion in the arable lands of the macroregion using an USLE empirical mathematical model modified to suit the harsh climatic conditions of Russia. The calculation was performed using a raster model of the data that includes a model of the slope angle, slope length, soil erodibility, rainfall erosivity factor, water content of the snow, annual distribution of precipitation, and types of land use. The location of arable lands of the territory were determined by remote sensing measurements and the TerraNorteRLCv.3 (2014) map compiled by the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Science. For the first time, the intensity of soil erosion over periods of snowmelt and storm runoff, as well as the total annual soil loss, were determined for this territory at a regional scale (1:500,000). The results of these calculations were generalized for small river basins. For this generalization, we used a grid we had previously designed t...

Assessment of soil loss by water erosion in small river basins in Russia