r.uslek - Computes USLE Soil Erodibility Factor (K).
Contents
Description
r.uslek calculates the USLE K factor, that is the Soil Erodibility Factor. It takes input of soil texture
classes (sand, clay, silt) and organic matter, all in range of [0.0-1.0]. The FAO World Soil CD
documentation was used to produce the conversion system between soil textures and soil classes. The soil
classes are in number of 12 and apparently come from a USDA publication of 1951 (p.209). Once the soil
classes have been identified (by vector cross-products tests), a general conversion table was applied for
transforming soil classes into K factor.
Example
Calculate the USLE K factor (synthetic values, North Carolina sample dataset):
# NC data: simulation
g.region rural_1m -p
r.mapcalc "sand = 0.11"
r.mapcalc "clay = 0.47"
r.mapcalc "silt = 0.42"
r.mapcalc "organ = 0.0136"
r.uslek psand=sand pclay=clay psilt=silt pomat=organ output=usle_k
r.univar usle_k
# Result: uslek = 0.25
Example with small variations (condition: d_sand + d_clay + d_silt => 1.0)
# NC data: simulation
r.mapcalc -s "sand_r = rand(0.09,0.13)"
r.mapcalc -s "clay_r = rand(0.45,0.49)"
r.mapcalc -s "silt_r = rand(0.40,0.44)"
r.mapcalc -s "organ = rand(0.01,0.70)"
r.mapcalc "temp_sum = sand_r + clay_r + silt_r"
r.mapcalc "sand = sand_r / temp_sum"
r.mapcalc "clay = clay_r / temp_sum"
r.mapcalc "silt = silt_r / temp_sum"
r.mapcalc "test = sand + clay + silt"
r.info -r test
g.remove -f rast name=sand_r,clay_r,silt_r,temp_sum,test
r.uslek psand=sand pclay=clay psilt=silt pomat=organ output=usle_k
r.univar usle_k
# Result: uslek = variable values
Keywords
raster, hydrology, soil, erosion
Name
r.uslek - Computes USLE Soil Erodibility Factor (K).
Notes
r.watershed provides for USLE L, S, LS factors.
See Also
r.usler,r.watershed
Source Code
Available at: r.uslek source code (history)
Accessed: Friday Apr 04 01:19:44 2025
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© 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 8.4.1 Reference Manual
GRASS 8.4.1 r.uslek(1grass)
Synopsis
r.uslekr.uslek--helpr.uslekpsand=namepclay=namepsilt=namepomat=nameoutput=name [--overwrite] [--help] [--verbose]
[--quiet] [--ui]
Flags:--overwrite
Allow output files to overwrite existing files
--help
Print usage summary
--verbose
Verbose module output
--quiet
Quiet module output
--ui
Force launching GUI dialog
Parameters:psand=name[required]
Name of soil sand fraction raster map [0.0-1.0]
pclay=name[required]
Name of soil clay fraction raster map [0.0-1.0]
psilt=name[required]
Name of soil silt fraction raster map [0.0-1.0]
pomat=name[required]
Name of soil organic matter raster map [0.0-1.0]
output=name[required]
Name for output USLE K factor raster map [t.ha.hr/ha.MJ.mm]
