Surface erosion assessment in two Calabrian basins (southern Italy)

The present study presents an assessment of the erosion for two basins located on the Ionian side of southern Calabria (southern Italy). Two different approaches are considered to evaluate soil erosion: a qualitative method, based on aerial photo interpretative analysis, and a quantitative method, based on the RUSLE model. The percentage of area affected overall by surface erosion proves to be greater using the quantitative approach (38.5%) compared to the qualitative (13.3%). The mean erosion estimated using RUSLE is about 3.5 mm year-1 and can be compared with the values for Calabria reported in the literature. The application of the two approaches has shown that the spatial-temporal distribution of the parameters influencing the erosive process plays a relevant role.