Soil erosion estimation with a WebGIS-based platform

This paper presents a effective WebGIS -based extendable mechanism to support soil erosion estimation and monitoring. A WebGIS platform can collect and integrate relative information from multiple and distributed sources and further derive required information for soil erosion estimation using distributed web services or software components. A prototype system was developed following this mechanism for Yunnan, China and used to estimate soil erosion in that area. The results demonstrate that this mechanism efficiently estimates soil erosion, involves public participation, and is accessible and transparent via the internet. We argue that the WebGIS-based mechanism provide practical solutions for complex projects involving multiple stakeholders.