What is it about?
While the MUSLE is popularly used to calculate sediment yield from catchments of varying sizes, the size of catchment affects the ability of MUSLE to provide accurate estimates. MUSLE overestimates sediment yield as catchment size increases, especially if the catchment is considered as a single unit (Lumped). This paper investigates the issues that lead to such overestimates and offers solutions.
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Why is it important?
The MUSLE is widely used across the world and it is important to ensure that it is applied properly so as to reduce calibration burdens. This paper is one of the first papers to directly report on the effects of catchment size on the MUSLE.
Perspectives
The article was born out of the development of a simple sediment transport model. After realising that the model was overestimating sediment output we had to investigate the causes and made the discoveries that led to the writing of the article. We have implemented the recommendations in the article ourselves and have had better results and we advise other MUSLE uses to attempt the same.
David Gwapedza
Rhodes University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Spatial scale dependency issues in the application of the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE), Hydrological Sciences Journal, October 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/02626667.2018.1546388.
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