Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Vegetation cover and management factor (C) of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is usually can be found from guideline. However, the value would actually bias for small scale area. This study was therefore aimed to use digital photograph to obtain the vegetation cover and management factor (C) at small scale. A total of 8 photographs were taken at the centre of the 8 experimental plots location. These photographs were processed using ArcGIS 10.1 whereby the vegetation cover and bared soil were identified using the maximum likelihood algorithm method. For validation purposes, the results obtained were compared with that of the previous studies. We found that the newly derived value of C is of comparable with that of the previous studies. This indicates the simple technique is beneficial for quantification of the vegetation ground cover for small scale and sloping topography as we applied to hilly area beside highway. The proposed technique is also applicable for large area but it is suggested to use unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in order to obtain overall picture of the area.