Project Number: 6060-13000-026-36-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement

Start Date: Oct 1, 2017
End Date: Sep 30, 2022

Objective:
The purpose of this agreement is for the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), to continue maintenance (e.g. issues associated with changing CCE definitions), programming, and debugging of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (Version 2) for use by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). RUSLE2 is the water erosion prediction tool for use by NRCS. NRCS is adopting the Integrated Erosion Tool (IET) that will use corporate data sets for soil, climate and managements. At the moment, IET will not provide all the functionality of the stand-alone RUSLE2.

Approach:
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (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.