Estimation of Erosion-Sediment in Sarab Sikan Watershed Using RUSLE Model

In this study, in order to identify the spatial distribution of soil erosion and sediment production in Sarab Sikan basin, the RUSLE model, GIS and remote sensing technology are used. First, using meteorological data, soil and digital elevation model with a size of 10 meters, each of the factors of erosion erosivity (R), erodibility (K), slope and slope length (LS) and soil protection (P) in the Arc GIS was calculated in Arc GIS. Sentine2 satellite sensor was also used to extract and prepare the vegetation factor of the basin (C) in ENVI 5.3 software environment. Finally, by combining these factors, the amount of basin erosion was calculated and the amount of sediment produced in the basin was obtained by different methods of sediment delivery ratio (SDR). The results showed that the amount of erosion in the basin is varies from 0.003 to 248.4 t ha-1y-1 and the average erosion in the basin is 22.3 t ha-1y-1. Among the model factors, LS factor with a correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.92 showed the highest share in soil erosion. Also, the SDR ratio was calculated by different methods between 0.12 and 0.36, which after combining with the erosion map, the sediment yield of the basin was estimated. The average sediment yield by Boise method is 2.8 t ha-1y-1, which is closer to the amount of station sediment with an average of 1.65 t ha-1y-1 compared to other methods.