JoRSG (2015) 1-7 © STM Journals 2015. All Rights Reserved Page 1 Journal of Remote Sensing & GIS ISSN: 2230-7990(online), ISSN: 2321-421X(print) Volume 6, Issue 3 www.stmjournals.com Assessment of Soil Erosion Using USLE Technique: A Case Study of Mysore District, Karnataka, India B. Mahalingam 1 *, M. M. Malik 2 , M. Vinay 1 1 Center for Geoinformatics, University of Mysore, Manasagangothri, Mysore, India 2 Department of Geography, University of Mysore, Manasagangothri, Mysore, India Abstract The present study has been conducted to assess the soil erosion in Mysore district in Karnataka, India. The most widely used Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) method has been adopted for the analysis. The USLE method performs based on the five parameters such as, rainfall factor, soil factor, length and slope factor and conservation practice factor. Each necessary numerical data have been obtained from the concerned organization and satellite images have been downloaded from appropriate websites. The spatial data have been manipulated and analyzed using GIS while the numerical data have been analyzed using MS- Excel. The result of study represents that, most of the area is covered by very light erosion followed by very severe erosion. Keywords: universal soil loss equation (USLE), land use, land cover, rainfall, GIS *Author for Correspondence E-mail: mahabose@gmail.com INTRODUCTION Soil is one of the natural resource which has been termed as a “limited and irreplaceable resource” by the International Soil Science Society [1]. Over the years, the unplanned practice of cultivation [2], introduction of large-scale irrigation canals and deforestation [3] accelerated soil degradation, while Oldmen (1988) indicated that, the causative factors of soil degradation can be grouped as, deforestation, over-exploitation of vegetation cover for human uses, over-grazing of pasture lands, over-intensive use of agriculture land and (bio)-industrial waste. Soil erosion is a widespread problem in agriculture in the developing countries [4] especially in India, where most of the soil has been eroded by sheet and rill erosion. This has a serious effect on agricultural production [5]. Although soil erosion has been recognized as a hazard of significant concern, yet the number of studies on this problem is very limited in a country like India [6]. The present study area— Mysore—is one of the agriculture-based districts in the state of Karnataka, India, where the topography is rugged due to the erosion of hills to plain region [7]. The study of soil erosion in Mysore district would bring out valuable outcomes for the future management purpose. Several models have been developed to predict soil erosion during the past 50 years, such as water erosion prediction and planning (WEPP), watershed model (WATSED), and USLE. Among these USLE is one of the most widely used models for predicting soil loss [8]. The USLE was established by Wischmeier and Smith in 1978; it is applied in many areas of the world [9]. Primarily, the USLE equation was produced for selected cropping and management systems, but it is also applicable to nonagricultural conditions such as construction sites [10, 11]. USLE takes into account several factors such as rainfall, soil erodibility, slope, land cover and erosion control practice for soil erosion prediction [12]. The result of USLE represents the degradation of soils in amount of tones per hectare in a year [13]. The development of GIS and remote sensing (RS) data plays a major role in the analysis of soil erosion. These techniques have become valuable tools specially when assessing erosion at larger scales due to the amount of data needed and the greater area coverage [14]. Many case studies such as soil loss prediction