Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation

The RUSLE model can contribute to impact assessment of European Policies by identifying the impact of land use/cover change to soil erosion and furthermore to environment. Land Cover is an important factor in RUSLE soil erosion estimation and possible changes in land cover will have direct influence to the model results.

The RUSLE model contributes to the following policies: 

1. Impact Assessment of the post 2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) - SWD(2018) 301 final
2. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) COM(2016) 739 final 
3. Thematic strategy for soil protection (COM/2006/231). Commission of the European Communities, Brussels. 
4. Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020 (context indicator No 42) 
5. Resource Efficiency Flagship Initiative - EU Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe.

by providing e.g. statistics for the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), Eurostat Agro-environmental Indicator No 21, Eurostat Regional Statistics edition 2015, and the Eurostat Europe2020 Resource Efficiency scoreboard.

Potential applications at a global scale include United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), FAO, Status of the World’s Soil Resources, The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem (IPBES) and the OECD Agri-Environmental Indicators.

A major development in 2018 was the use of RUSLE2015 for the Impact Assessment of the post2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). RUSLE2015 scenarios and references can be found in the Impact assessment SWD (2018) 301 final.

Policy Document: Impact assessment SWD (2018) 301 final Accompanying the document for a Regulation on the Post 2020 CAP
Reference: European Commission proposal COM(2018) 392 Final for the post2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The model has contributed to run policy scenario analysis for the soil erosion projections in 2030. Those projections have been included in the policy document EU Agricultural outlook for markets and income 2018-2030:  https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/markets-and-prices/medium-term-outlook_en

An additional developmnt was the use of RUSLE2015 for the Sustainable development in the European Union — Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context — 2018 edition .