EVALUATION OF SOIL LOSS WITH DIFFERENT ALTERNATIVES OF THE C AND P FACTORS USING THE RUSLE IN HIGH ANDEAN BASINS

Soil is an essential natural resource degraded on an unprecedented scale both in proportional and geographical terms. Soil loss generated by water erosion was evaluated by the RUSLE allowing the quantification of the spatial distribution of the erosion rate in different units of the landscape. However, spatial mapping of soil loss rate has generally been addressed, with little research on changes in the C and P factors, being perhaps the factors of dynamic change that can be strongly influenced in the short term by man. The objective was to evaluate soil loss by the RUSLE for 2013 and 2018 for different changes in land use cover (the C factor) and conservation practices (the P factor) under four modeling scenarios. The methodology adopted used the RUSLE, remote sensing, and a geospatial tool (GIS). The results show that the rate of soil loss is increasing, presenting greater changes in the risks of very severe and extremely severe erosion (Scenarios 1 and 2). Therefore, with conservation practice alternatives, it was possible to mitigate the rate of soil erosion, reducing the risks of moderate, severe, and extremely severe erosion, confirming the protective effects of conservation practices against soil erosion.