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Watershed is defined as a geo-hydrological unit draining to a common point by a system of drains and we can say that all lands on earth are part of one watershed or other. Soil erosion is a natural process, occurring over a period of time and may be caused by water or wind.it leads to loss in soil productivity due to physical loss in top soil, reduction in rooting depth, removal of plant nutrients and loss of soil. There are so many types of soil erosion, such as sheet, rill and gully erosion. Water and wind are the main courses of soil erosion. River Sosiani basin is located in Eldoret town which is mainly known for agricultural practices. Soil erosion has highly affected the watershed, which in turn causes reduction in crop production. This project study applied the RUSLE and GIS to predict the annual average soil loss rate. To achieve the goals of this project the RUSLE factors were calculated. These RUSLE factors are C factor, K factor, R factor, P factor and LS factor. C factor was obtained from Land cover and Land use while P factor was obtained from DEM. The R factor was determined from the annual rainfall data. LS factor was generated from the DEM. After obtaining all this parameters, the soil loss was calculated and using RUSLE. The soil loss was ranging from 0 to 114.40 tons/ha per year. In the year 1994 the highest value of soil loss was 82.35 while the lowest was 0. Most of the soil loss was ranging between 0 and 0.646 tons/ha/year, the mean soil loss in 1994 was 0.59 and standard deviation was 1.73, this indicates that the soil loss was low. In the year 2002 the highest value of soil loss was 63.95 and the lowest was 0, and most area ranges between 0 and 3.88, the mean soil loss in 2002 was 0.39 and standard deviation was 1.14. This shows that the amount of soil loss in 1994 was high as compared to 2002. |
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