Abstract

PRADO-HERNANDEZ, Jorge V. et al. Calibration of the usle and musle soil loss models in a mexican forest watershed: El Malacate case study. Agrociencia [online]. 2017, vol.51, n.3, pp.265-284. ISSN 2521-9766.

The quantification of water erosion in watershed soils serves to understand their degree of deterioration and to implement conservation measures that minimize the loss of soil. Given the lack of information to quantify soil erosion in México with acceptable precision, it is necessary to study their estimation with the information available through methodologies validated with experimental information. For that purpose, the objective of this study was to calibrate the USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation) and MUSLE (Modified USLE) methods in the El Malacate micro-basin, which belongs to the Pátzcuaro Lake watershed in Michoacán, México, with experimental data from 2013. The MUSLE model was calibrated satisfactorily through the adjustment of the K factor whose value was 0.1067. Prior to the calibration the errors in the estimation of the results were -214.1 and -721.6 %, using the value of the K factor that results from the original methodology proposed by Wischmeier-Smith, and from the proposal updated by FAO. According to the delivery rate from soil to the exit of a watershed, reported in other studies for watersheds similar to that of the study, it was found that the USLE model does not represent the characteristics of the El Malacate basin. Instead, the calibrated MUSLE model can be used to estimate the sediment yield in watersheds with similar conditions with scarce hydrometric and precipitation information. Given that the K, C, LS and P factors are common in both models, the methodology should be reviewed to obtain the R factor and the mathematical structure of their representation in the MUSLE model, in addition to the methodologies used to calculate the delivery rate for the soil and the C and K factors, to guarantee the compatibility of their results.

Keywords : Specific degradation; soil erosion; sediment production; hydrological modelling; simulation in watersheds.

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