DefinePK

Abstract

Soil erosion is a natural disaster which frequently takes place in the Northern region of Thailand. Soil erosion causes loss of lives and properties of residents. This study was aimed to integrate a geo-informatics technology with the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) in order to analyze areas which are prone to soil erosion in Nan Province, Thailand. The operation was performed by analyzing 6 factors of USLE including Rainfall erosivity (R-factor), Soil erodibility (K-factor), Slope length (L) and slope steepness (S), Cropping management (C), and Conservation practice (P) with overlay analysis being adopted as the last method. It was found from the analysis that the severity of the soil-erosion prone areas of Nan Province constituted 5 levels that included the least severity of 2,120.192 km2, the less severity of 2,728.851 km2, the moderate severity of 2,937.822 km2, the much severity of 2,133.648 km2, and the most severity of 1,551.5584 km2. The findings from this study can be embraced as a guideline to plan on the conservation and the management of land, and applied in a decision making process related to the land use planning in Nan Province, Thailand.