A systematic assessment of uncertainties in large-scale soil loss estimation from different representations of USLE input factors – a case study for Kenya and Uganda

Schürz, Christoph; Mehdi, Bano; Kiesel, Jens; Schulz, Karsten; Herrnegger, Mathew

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4463-2020

Articles | Volume 24, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4463-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4463-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 9

Research article

|

15 Sep 2020

Research article |

| 15 Sep 2020

A systematic assessment of uncertainties in large-scale soil loss estimation from different representations of USLE input factors – a case study for Kenya and Uganda

Christoph Schürz, Bano Mehdi, Jens Kiesel, Karsten Schulz, and Mathew Herrnegger

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Final revised paper (published on 15 Sep 2020)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 28 Nov 2019)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Hess – USLE model Uganda', Anonymous Referee #1, 28 Dec 2019
- AC1: 'Reply to the comments by Anonymous Referee #1', Christoph Schürz, 28 Apr 2020
RC2: 'Referee comments and suggestions', Anonymous Referee #2, 18 Jan 2020
- AC2: 'Reply to the comments by Anonymous Referee #2', Christoph Schürz, 28 Apr 2020
RC3: 'referee comments', Anonymous Referee #3, 31 Mar 2020
- AC3: 'Reply to the comments by Anonymous Referee #3', Christoph Schürz, 28 Apr 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by editor and referees) (09 May 2020) by Nunzio Romano

AR by Christoph Schürz on behalf of the Authors (20 Jun 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (03 Jul 2020) by Nunzio Romano

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (23 Jul 2020)

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (27 Jul 2020)

ED: Publish as is (30 Jul 2020) by Nunzio Romano

Short summary

The USLE is a commonly used model to estimate soil erosion by water. It quantifies soil loss as a product of six inputs representing rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, slope length and steepness, plant cover, and support practices. Many methods exist to derive these inputs, which can, however, lead to substantial differences in the estimated soil loss. Here, we analyze the effect of different input representations on the estimated soil loss in a large-scale study in Kenya and Uganda.