ESTIMATING AND MODELING SOIL LOSS AND SEDIMENT YIELD IN THE TATA VALLEY USING EMPIRICAL MODEL MUSLE.

In the present work the researches were carried out in the Tata Valley watershed, which has an area of 17 km² and administratively belongs to Dambovita county, Romania. The purpose of the study was to estimate the soil losses for a single storm event in the Tata Valley watershed using the MUSLE method and G.I.S. The identification of the erosion processes and the estimation of the quantity of eroded material is extremely important both for the elaboration of the risk maps, as well as for the analysis of the surfaces degraded by rill and gully erosion. The hydro-meteorological data for the 15 events studied (occuring from 3th June to 01st August 2018) were obtained from the rainfall station located in the area. The runoff factor of MUSLE was determined using SCS-Curve Number method and the peak flow using the rational method. Crop management factor (C), (K) factor and Topographic factor (LS) were determined using geographic information system (GIS) and field-based survey of land use and land cover (Corine Land Cover 2018) similar to USLE model. In the present scientific work the conservation practice (P factor) is obtained from the literature and it is considered as 1. Sediment yield has been simulated for fifteen storm events spread over the study period (3th July-01st August 2018) and the model results were validated using the values obtained by direct measurements. The results obtained for the study area, indicate that the MUSLE model can be used for highlighting both rill and gully erosion phenomena, produced in a small watershed like Tata Valley. The average sediment yield for the studied storms in Tita Valley watershed between June 3 and August 1 2018 is 3.70 tons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]