Investigation and Zoning of Soil Erosion Rate in Chehlgazi Sub-Watershed of Kurdistan Province

Soil erosion is considered as a natural and human hazard in both developing and developed countries. In other words, this problem can be caused by unprincipled development and factors affecting it, such as increasing population, deforestation, and lack of attention to soil capacity, as well as caused by factors such as overgrazing, unprincipled and traditional cultivation, destruction vegetation etc.; For this reason, it is referred to as an international problem in many societies.This research has been conducted in order to evaluating hazard, zoning of areas prone to water erosion and determining the amount of soil loss in the Chehlgezi sub-basin of Gheshlagh(Vahdat) Dam, Sanandaj with the SLEMSA model and Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing.The results of hazard assessment, zoning of areas susceptible to water erosion and determination of the amount of soil loss showed that 93.15% of the sub-basin has erosion volume of 0 to 10, 2.46% of the sub-basin has an erosion volume of 10 to 20, 3.17% has an erosion volume of 20 to 50, and 1.20% has an erosion volume of 50 to 537 tons/ha/year. According to the classification of erosion rate between 0 to 10 and 10 to 20 tons/ha/year, which is classified as low and medium class, about 95.61% of the sub-basin is in the low to medium class. Therefore, according to the mentioned cases, the use of other models and the comparison with their results with this model and observational data can be effective in making management decisions in the region.