ABSTRACT
Soil erosion is a natural process caused by water, wind, and ice that has affected the earth’s surface since the beginning of time. Man’s activities often accelerate soil erosion (Sombroek, 1995; Walling, 1983). Soil erosion and its off-site, downstream damages are major concerns around the world (Lai, 1994) causing losses in soil productivity, degradation of landscape, degradation of water quality, and loss of soil organic carbon (Walling, 1983; Brown and Wolf, 1984; Walling, 1987; Morgan, 1995; Lai et al., 1998). Brown (1991) estimated soil loss for the world’s cropland to be 23 billion tons. Economic damages from the degradation of soils, water quality, and reservoirs by eroded soil particles are significant (Pimentel et al., 1995; Colacicco et al., 1989).
