Ms Lúcia Helena Cunha dos Anjos, UFRRJ, Brazil. Global Symposium on Soil Erosion (GSER19), 15 - 17 May 2019 at FAO HQ.

1. How is soil erosion evaluated
in the land capability
systems used in Brazil?
Lúcia Anjos & Marcos G. Pereira.
UFRRJ – Soils Dept.
lanjos@ufrrj.br
1

2. 2
- System for Evaluation of Land Capability for
Agriculture (in Portuguese - SAAAT); Ramalho
and Beek (1995), 1st edition 1978.
Systems of land evaluation for
agricultural usage in Brazil
- Manual for utilitarian land evaluation and
classification …, Lepsch et al. (2015), based on
Land capability classification (Klingebiel and
Montgomery, 1961)

3. 3
- To compare the systems used in
Brazil, and their approaches to
evaluate soil erosion;
- To recommend a policy toward
implementing regulations to
reduce soil erosion and losses of
agricultural productivity.
Objectives:

4. 4
Soil Managements Levels: based on investment,
mechanization and technological level.
- A, B and C, from lower to highest;
- B and C are able to modify factors – f, o, and e.
SAAAT
Limiting factors: soil fertility (f), water availability
(a), oxygen availability (o), soil erosion (e), and
potential for mechanisation (m).

5. 5
Climate Soils Relief Slope
(%)
Precipitation
Texture classes and
gradient B/A
Plain to
mountainous
0-3
Soil structure 3 – 8
Permeability Extension,
slope form
8 – 13
Rainfall
distribution
Depth 13 – 20
Water retention
capacity Microrelief
20 – 45
Limiting layers, stony > 45
SAAAT - attributes to evaluate soil erosion

6. 6
SAAAT – erosion control practices
Class 1 – Level B and C Class 2 – Only Level C
Minimum tillage Terracing (level, graded, bench)
Mulching or bundles of crop
residues
Runoff channels, trenches
Level and contour plowing Individual basins
Alternating weed removal
Deep ploughing, subsoiling,
superficial disc harrowing
Cover crops, grass strips Permanent vegetation breaks
Contour bundling, buffer strips Gully control practices
Crop rotation, strip cropping,
intercropping
No-tillage
The land is classified according to levels of
conservation practices required, from C1 to C4.
• C1 - simple vegetative practices are sufficient
and erosion is defined as null to slightly.
• C3 - the limitation is moderate to strong and
mechanical practices are required.
• C4 - no practices recommended, land should be
left for preservation of flora and fauna.

7. 7
Utilitarian land evaluation and
classification
Three groups (A, B, C); eight classes (I to VIII); and
four subclasses (e, s, a, c); “e” = erosion risks.
• Group A - I to IV, proper for agriculture,
limitations and requirement of conservation
increasing toward more complex practices, until
only suitable for perennial crops (class IV).
• Group B – VI and VII, not suitable for crops and
recommended for pasture, silviculture; risk of
erosion is one of the main factors.

8. 8
Utilitarian land evaluation and classification
Three groups (A, B, C); eight classes (I to VIII); and
four subclasses (e, s, a, c); “e” = erosion risks.
• Group (C) - class VIII, not suitable for
agriculture, for fauna and flora conservation
and recreation.
Erosion factor is evaluated by the attributes:
- slope (length and degree), textural abrupt
change, low permeability, sandy textures,
- type of hydric erosion (sheet, rill, interril and
gully), and wind erosion.

9. 9
Utilitarian land evaluation and classification
Group A
Group B
Group C

10. 10
Land usage / coverage Area* Soil Loss**
% million ha
ton ha-1
y-1**
million ton
ha-1
million US$
year-1
Perennial Crops 1.83 15.60 0.4 6.24 33.26
Annual Crops 5.40 45.9 15.0 688.50 3,669.71
Planted Forests 0.76 6.50 0.4 2.60 13.86
TOTAL Crops and Forests 8.00 68.00 697.34 3,716.82
Degraded Pasture 1.16 9.84 15.0 147.64 786.94
Managed Pasture 10.77 91.59 0.4 36.64 195.28
TOTAL Pasture 19.70 167.50 - 270.78 1,443.25
NATURAL Vegetation
(UCs,Tis, APAs, etc
61.00 518.67 - 207.47 1,105.81
Total - 850.3 - 1175.6 6,265.9
*Embrapa, GITE, IBGE, CONAB. **Eswaran et al, 2001 (US$ 5.33 per ton of soil).
Source: Hernani et al., 2002.
Soil Loss estimates vs land uses/coverages in Brazil

11. 11
Final Comments
 The SAAAT and the Utilitarian Land Capability
systems provide a framework for assessing soil
attributes and landscape, to plan various land
usage types and to recommend conservation
practices for soil erosion control.
 However, both result mainly in a subjective and
qualitative interpretation, depending strongly
on the knowledge of the surveyor.

12. 12
Final Comments
 As policy to advance in soil erosion control,
Brazil has to define criteria and norms to be
applied nationwide, and according to the soil
survey objective: small scale for regional
planning or large scale (watersheds) for the
farmers level.
 A national data base on soil erosion should be
implemented to validate technologies for each
land capability /agricultural suitability classes.

13. OBRIGADA!
lanjos@ufrrj.br