Influence of Land Use on The Gully Erosion Process in Cacequi, Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The study of erosion in the last decades has led to the development of a variety of data modeling techniques to understand this phenomenon. This work aims to measure
the impact of land use in three gullies in Cacequi – RS. The SCS-CN empirical model was applied to estimate the runoff from 1975 to 2022 and the EEFlux model to the evapotranspiration of the actual land use. The soil type proved to be the most important variable to runoff, despite that, the farming areas were the most runoff prone and the forestry the least. Evapotranspiration data show that eucalyptus trees use more water from the soil, which may have an impact on the expansion of gullies, such as a decrease in mass movements and lowering of the base level, allowing greater vertical development of gullies,
and these impacts require further more detailed studies in the area.