Support Practices Factor

What is P-factor (Support Practices)

The P-factor accounts for control practices that reduce the erosion potential of runoff by their influence on drainage patterns, runoff concentration, runoff velocity and hydraulic forces exerted by the runoff on the soil surface. It is an expression of the overall effects of supporting conservation practices – such as contour farming, strip cropping, terracing, and subsurface drainage – on soil loss at a particular site, as those practices principally affect water erosion by modifying the flow pattern, grade, or direction of surface runoff and by reducing the volume and rate of runoff. The value of P-factor decreases by adopting these supporting conservation practices as they reduce runoff volume and velocity and encourage the deposition of sediment on the hill slope surface. The lower the P-factor value, the better the practice is for controlling soil erosion.  

 

P-factor in Europe

The USLE/RUSLE support practice factor (P-factor) is rarely taken into account in soil erosion risk modelling at sub-continental scale, as it is difficult to estimate for large areas. This study attempts to model the P-factor in the European Union. For this, it considers the latest policy developments in the Common Agricultural Policy, and applies the rules set by Member States for contour farming over a certain slope. The impact of stone walls and grass margins is also modelled using the more than 226,000 observations from the Land use/cover area frame statistical survey (LUCAS) carried out in 2012 in the European Union.

The mean P-factor considering contour farming, stone walls and grass margins in the European Union is estimated at 0.9702. The support practices accounted for in the P-factor reduce the risk of soil erosion by 3%, with grass margins having the largest impact (57% of the total erosion risk reduction) followed by stone walls (38%). Contour farming contributes very little to the P-factor given its limited application; it is only used as a support practice in eight countries and only on very steep slopes. Support practices have the highest impact in Malta, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Netherlands and United Kingdom where they reduce soil erosion risk by at least 5%. The P-factor modelling tool can potentially be used by policy makers to run soil-erosion risk scenarios for a wider application of contour farming in areas with slope gradients less than 10%, maintaining stone walls and increasing the number of grass margins under the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Information: Panos Panagos and Pasquale Borrelli
European Commission, Institute of Environment and Sustainability, Land Resource Management Unit

References:
A complete description of the methodology and the application in Europe is described in the paper:
Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, K., van der Zanden, E.H., Poesen, J., Alewell, C. 2015. Modelling the effect of support practices (P-factor) on the reduction of soil erosion by water at European Scale. Environmental Science & Policy, 51: 23-34.

Data

The P-factor dataset is in Raster format. The public user can download 2 datasets :
- Support practice factor (P-factor) in the European Union at 1km resolution
- Mean P-factor at regional (NUTS2) level in the European Union
To get access to the data, please compile the Request form; instructions will then follow how to download the datasets.

 

Fig. 1: Modelling the effect of support practices (P-factor) on the reduction of soil erosion by water at European Scale

 

 Fig. 2: Mean P-factor at regional (NUTS2) level in the European Union.

 

 

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Support Practices factor (P-factor) for the EU
Title: Support Practices factor (P-factor) for the EU
Resource Type: Datasets, Soil Threats Data
Theme/Sub-Theme: Erosion by water, Support Practices Factor
Registration requested: Request Form
Continent:
Year: 2015
Publisher: European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Keywords: RUSLE | , GAEC | , stone walls | , grass margins | , LUCAS | , contour farming |