FOTG Section I-D-1. Erosion Prediction Information for Conservation Planning-

b. WEQ Information for Conservation Planning

Natural Resources Conservation Service

Field Office Technical Guide

PacificIslands Area

Section I-D-1-b.

WEQ Information for Conservation Planning

Introduction

Section I-D-1-b includes information needed to use the NRCS Wind Erosion Equation (WEQ) Microsoft EXCEL spreadsheet model to generate an estimate of the potential annual soil loss due to wind erosion for conservation planning purposes. The information included in this section is not be confused with what is included in Section I-D-2 HEL Determinations, which includes information for making Highly Erodible Land (HEL) determinations for USDA program eligibility purposes.

Information needed to use the WEQmodel includes: climatic erosivity or C values, soil loss tolerance or T factors, wind erodibility group numbers, and wind erodibility indexesfor the soils being evaluated. Other needed information must be gathered in the field.

Section I-D-1-b includes the Wind Erosion Equation (WEQ) Guidance Document which provides basic operating instructions.

Section I-D-1-b also includes WEQ C value maps for the Hawaiian Islands.

A determination has been made that all map units in the non-Hawaiian islands of the PacificIslands are Non-Highly Erodible Land (NHEL) for wind erosion. This determination covers the Island of Guam, the Commonwealth of the NorthernMarianasIslands (Saipan, Rota, Tinian) and all of the islands included in the Territory of American Samoa. See related Section I-D-2-e document entitled “Non-Highly Erodible Land (NHEL) for Wind Erosion Determination - Guam, CNMI and American Samoa.” Based on this determination, wind erosion is deemed to be a minor resource concern and as such no WEQ C values and maps have been developed for these locations.

T factors, wind erodibility groups and wind erodibility indexes for the soils in the Hawaiian Islands are available via the NRCS Soil Data Mart, Physical Soil Properties report.

Soil Data Mart is a web application that allows you to generate and print soil interpretations, soil legends and soils descriptions in both tabular and spatial form (maps) for one soil survey area at a time.

To connect to Soil Data Mart go to following internet URL:

Link to Soil Data Mart official tabular and spatial data for Hawaii:

Additional information about using Soil Data Mart is included in a separate document in Section II of the FOTG.

NRCS-PIPage 1 of 1September 2007