A Visual Approach to Estimating Sediment Discharge by Erosia

Are you tired of finding unexpected sediment discharge locations, experiencing expensive land surveys, and WORST of all, being blamed for non-compliant fees? See how Erosia can help alleviate these problems by illustrating sediment discharge scenarios that display where erosion rates are high or low, along with their hydrologic paths. In addition, find out how Erosia can assist in evaluating how BMPs impact the reduction of erosion, which will minimize the rate sediment discharges from a project site!

Full Abstract: There are several software programs that provide a way to estimate both the average annual erosion rate and the amount of sediment discharging from disturbed lands. These include RUSLE and RUSLE2, SWAT, Pollution Load Estimation Tool (PLET), MUSLE,and USDA’s WEPP Series, all of which exhibit similar shortcomings including:

● Complexity

o It is important that erosion and sediment discharge models be user
friendly. Many software programs require extensive up-front activities to
obtain input data for meaningful results.

● Lack of Visual and Spatial Representation of input data

o Many do not take into consideration the location of the slope lengths, land
use/land cover, or management practices nor show how annual erosion
rates/sediment discharge vary throughout a project site.

● Inconvenient / time consuming workflows

o Some programs rely on the same methodology that hydrologists use
without software such as the NRCS Curve Number method. They can also
rely heavily on manual input of management practices, nutrients, etc.

● Lack of detailed information regarding runoff location

o Numerous software programs produce numerical results for a single
slope/region and do not illustrate how or where flow accumulation
discharges occur. In addition, they do not show where estimated annual
soil erosion rates are low and high.

● Limited Use Cases

o Some programs are primarily limited to agricultural field use due to their
land management coefficients being reliant on crop rotations and crop
type.

These shortcomings significantly slow down the planning process whilst also increasing
the cost of planning. Furthermore, vague information leaves planners unaware of
potential hazardous runoff and sediment discharge accumulation scenarios. This can
result in non-compliant fines and legal problems.

This poster will introduce the Erosia software and demonstrate how it can be applied to
sediment and erosion control planning. It will also show various examples of estimating
average annual soil erosion and sediment discharge rates for construction sites and
highway projects.

As time permits, live demonstrations will illustrate how Erosia functions as a catalyst in
sediment control planning by using its ability to easily assess how BMPs reduce erosion
and sediment discharge during construction and post construction scenarios.