Project Number: 6408-13000-023-11
Project Type: Reimbursable

Start Date: May 01, 2011
End Date: Jul 01, 2013

Objective:
The purpose of this agreement is for the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), to continue development, programming, and debugging of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (Version 2) for use by NRCS. RUSLE2 is the water erosion prediction tool for use by NRCS. The NRCS has been using various versions of the RUSLE2 for many years. RUSLE2 is an essential tool for NRCS and the programming is needed to integrate into the NRCS Conservation Delivery Streamlining Initiative (CDSI). RUSLE2 will provide before and after soil loss predictions for a conservation system and a Soil Conditioning Index estimate quantifying resource concerns for soil erosion and soil quality. The model requires programming to enable field offices to provide technical assistance to private landowners.

Approach:
Tasks to be Completed: a) Develop and test the necessary code to calculate ephemeral gully erosion. b) Develop, insert and test the necessary code to calculate soil organic carbon/matter from the existing parameters that are currently being tracked in RUSLE2. c) Develop, insert and test the necessary code to calculate residue degradation rates separately for above ground and below ground residue/roots. Tasks to be performed on a continual basis during the term of this agreement: a. Develop the RUSLE2D version of RUSLE2 that has the functionality of the latest version of RUSLE2 and the added spatial erosion output potentially useful for inclusion in the CDSI effort. b. Train the key NRCS personnel on database development. c. Provide technical support to NRCS throughout the term on this Agreement, including addressing any bugs or other problems with the RUSLE2 model due to the insertion of new code associated with this contract. d. Keep the NRCS Responsible Person informed of any changes to RUSLE2 model. e. Provide support to the DLL version in NRCS’s efforts to make it capable of utilizing the NRCS Land Operations Management Database (LMOD) and National Soils Database data. f. Evaluate the Soil Organic Matter subroutine across several areas nationwide to determine if it provides satisfactory results. g. Evaluate the accuracy of the newly inserted concentrated flow erosion subroutine into the RUSLE2 program. h. Evaluate the effect of degrading above ground and buried residue pools at different rates.