Soil Loss Estimation based on RUSLE along the Central Hunter Valley Region, NSW, Australia

Soil erosion by water has been a major problem since man introduced agriculture in the landscape. Soil erosion is a common hazard which is steadily increasing as a result of human activities in many parts of the world. Hunter Valley of NSW is located in subtropical eastern Australia. The region is known for its diversity in landscape that includes wide floodplains, extensive estuarine wetlands, undulating country, escarpments and rugged sandstone gorges. The region is also well known for wine production. The Hunter Valley has a long history of soil erosion following the European settlement 150 years ago. Currently there have been renewed human activities in the south central part of the region for coal mining, leading to clearance of vegetation and disturbance of soil. The present study addresses the issue of soil erosion in a part of Hunter Region by employing the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE, Renard et al., 1977) model. The results indicate that the average annual soil loss from the area is 0.7 kg/ m(2)/year, which is well beyond the tolerance limit of the soil. Statistical relationships between soil loss and each parameter of the RUSLE equation were obtained and it was found that C factor has significant influence on the average soil loss in the area. An overall picture that emerges out of the study is that the region is continuing to suffer as a result of disturbance in natural environment from the historical times till present.