• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.789-792
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• 2010

Major impacts of climate change expert that soil erosion rate may increase during the $21^{st}$ century. This study was conducted to assess the potential impacts of climate change on soil erosion by water in Korea. The soil loss was estimated for regions with the potential risk of soil erosion on a national scale. For computation, Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) with rainfall and runoff erosivity factors (R), cover management factors (C), support practice factors (P) and revised USLE with soil erodibility factors (K) and topographic factors (LS) were used. RUSLE, the revised version of USLE, was modified for Korean conditions and re-evaluate to estimate the national-scale of soil loss based on the digital soil maps for Korea. The change of precipitation for 2010 to 2090s were predicted under A1B scenarios made by National Institute of Meteorological Research in Korea. Future soil loss was predicted based on a change of R factor. As results, the predicted precipitations were increased by 6.7% for 2010 to 2030s, 9.5% for 2040 to 2060s and 190% for 2070 to 2090s, respectively. The total soil loss from uplands in 2005 was estimated approximately $28{\times}10^6$ ton. Total soil losses were estimated as $31{\times}10^6$ ton in 2010 to 2030s, $31{\times}10^6$ ton in 2040 to 2060s and $33{\times}10^6$ ton in 2070 to 2090s, respectively. As precipitation increased by 17% in the end of $21^{st}$ century, the total soil loss was increased by 12.9%. Overall, these results emphasize the significance of precipitation. However, it should be noted that when precipitation becomes insignificant, the results may turn out to be complex due to the large interaction among plant biomass, runoff and erosion. This may cause increase or decrease the overall erosion.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 1999

Rainfall factor. R, and soil factor, K were estimated to use the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) to predict the amount of soil erosion from a land on slope in Kangwon-do, Korea. The average of R factor was 405 with a range from 251 to 601. The R factor differed among regions. The R factor at Taegwalryung, in the highland region, was 409 and those at Inje and Hongchon, in the mid mountainous regions, ranged from 310 to 493. The R factors at Wonju and Chuncheon, in the plain regions, ranged from 505 to 601. The R factors at Sokcho, Kangnung and Samchok, in the east coastal region, which ranged from 251 to 368, were lowee than those in the western part of the Taebaeg Mountains. The R factor during the winter including the effect of winter freezing and thawing was 12 to 30% of the annual average value in the east coastal and highland regions, while that in the western part of Taebaeg Mountains was lower than 7%. The average of K factor in the surface soil was 0.21 with a range from 0.06 to 0.42. The K factors of Odae and Weoljeong serieses were the lowest, while that of Imog was the highest. The average of K factor in the subsoil was 0.28 with a range from 0.07 to 0.45. The K factor of the subsoil was 1.3 times higher than that of top soil. The average of K factor in he soil including the effect of the gravel covering and percolation was 0.18 with a range from 0.03 to 0.33. In contrast. the K factor excluding the effect of the gravel covering was lower than this. The average of K factor in the frozen subsoil was 0.33, which was 1.6 times higher than that of the non frozen subsoil.