Assessment of Soil Erosion Risk in The Basin of Wadi Maged in Northern West Coast of Egypt Using Corine Model and Gis Techniques

S OIL erosion is one of the major threats to the conservation of soil and water resources. The main aim of this research is to determine potential and actual soil erosion risk of Wadi Maged basin using GIS techniques and COo Rdination of IN formation on the Environment (CORINE) model. The main factors of soil erosion including soil erodibility, erosivity, topography and vegetation cover were determined. Initially soil texture, soil depth, and surface stoniness maps were created and intersected in GIS environment in order to generate erodibility map. The Fournier precipitation and Bagnouls–Gaussen drought indices were determined based on meteorological data and erosivity was calculated. Potential erosion risk map was generated by composed soil erodibility, erosivity and slope layers. Results revealed that about 570.1 ha. of the study area was classified as no erosion risk. Areas under low and moderate potential soil erosion risk were about 8279.3 ha. and 10.0 ha. of the study area, respectively. The areas classified as high potential soil erosion risk was a small area (0.2 ha.) in the north. Results of actual erosion risk revealed that actual erosion risk areas were less than the potential one (7044.2 ha.). These results confirm the role of land cover in protecting the soil surface from erosion. The assessment of soil erosion risk helps to prioritize critical areas for adopting suitable soil erosion prevention measures.