Soil erosion is a natural phenomenon that reduces soil fertility and causes a great impact on agricultural areas. Laminar erosion is characterized by the removal of the top soil fairly uniformly as well as its nutrients, which is accelerated by human activities. To minimize the impacts it is necessary to adopt an adequate soil management that takes into account the type of the soil, relief, and vegetation cover. The soil management can be aided by mapping the erosive potential of a region using GIS tools. In this work, the technique that was used for mapping the erosive potential in the Japaratuba River Basin (1685 km²) located in the State of Sergipe is presented. The results show that 48.71% of the basin area lie within medium and high erosive potentials zones, suggesting the inadequate land use for the soil types and relief within the basin.
soil erosion; human impacts; soil loss
