Comparison of WEPP:Road Batch Model and ABAG Model for Estimating Amount of Top Soil Erosion in Forest Road Fill Slopes
Abstract
The bare surfaces formed on slopes in construction of forest roads become the most important sediment sources due to erosion. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate effectiveness of the WEPP (Water Erosion Prediction Project): Road Batch model in estimation of the annual soil loss from forest roads by comparing its performance with ABAG (Allgemeine Boden Abtrags Gleichung) model which is a metric system of the USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation) model. In the study, analyzes were made on newly built (road coded 315), 5-year (road coded 307), and 10-year (road coded 269) sample forest roads located in the city of Trabzon in Türkiye. WEPP: Road Batch model and ABAG model were implemented on the sample roads to estimate for the amount of top soil erosion in fill slopes. The results indicated that for WEEP and ABAG models, annual soil loos per hectare were 7.93 and 15.5 T/ha/year, 1.46 and 1.59 T/ha/year, and 1.58 and 1.75 T/ha/year on newly built, 5-year, and 10-year forest roads, respectively. It was concluded that it would be more accurate to determine the annual soil loss precisely by taking samples only from newly built roads, where it is possible to use WEPP: Road Batch software on aged roads. Thus, a practical solution can be found for measuring the amount of erosion on forest roads.
Keywords
WEPP, forest road, fill slope, ABAG, soil erosion
Supporting Institution
Office of Scientific Research Projects of Karadeniz Technical University
Project Number
FHD-2021-9268
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