Use of satellite remote sensing and GIS for soil erosion mapping in the lower Calore river valley (Benevento Province, Southern Italy)

Antonio P. Leone¹, Natalia Leone², Paolo Magliulo³ & Alessio Valente^3
1Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems of the Mediterranean, National Research Council, Piazzale E. Fermi,1, 80055 Portici (NA, Italy).
²Geologist.
³Department of Sciences and Technology, University of Sannio (Benevento, Italy), Via F.De Sanctis, 82100 Benevento.
Corresponding author e-mail: valente@unisannio.it

This study attempts to gain an areal understanding of potential soil loss due to water erosion in the lower Calore River valley (Southern Italy). To this end, the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was applied to data obtained from the processing of multitemporal satellite images acquired by the Sentinel 2A system, the elaboration of a digital terrain model and that of weather station records, and the re-elaboration of pre-existing information regarding soil characteristics. The information acquired regarding each USLE factor (i.e., rain erosivity, R; soil erodibility, K; slope and length steepness, LS; and cover management, C), was combined in a GIS environment to obtain a Map of the potential risk of soil erosion. The results showed that the potential soil losses due to water erosion are quite worrying, particularly in hilly and foothill agricultural areas, dominated by valuable crops such as vines and olives.

soil water erosion, USLE equation, remote sensing, geographic information systems, Southern Italy.