Soil erosion control

Soil erosion control is a key ecosystem service delivered by terrestrial ecosystems, mainly through vegetation cover. Two indicators are used to quantify capacity and use of the service. A first dimensionless indicator measures the capacity of ecosystems to avoid soil erosion by assigning values ranging from 0 to 1 at pixel level, covering the EU-28 territory for the year 2010. A second indicator measures how much soil is retained by vegetation based on the difference between soil erosion in presence of vegetation and soil erosion in absence of vegetation. The quantification is based on an application of the RUSLE model.