The originally proposed topographic LS-factor scheme of was replaced by the one of in order to incorporate the impact of flow convergence in the
estimation of the slope-length factor. In the original equation, the
cover and management factor (C) was developed for agricultural
crop lands. It has to be adjusted to the forestland characteristics
to be able to spatially differentiate the various forest cover species,
canopy cover densities and floor vegetations Considering the size of the study area, the C-factor to predict
the soil loss potential for the European forestlands was estimated
in a slightly simplified way. The influence of the vegetation density
was quantified by manipulating a biophysical parameter (FSoil) as
derived . This enabled to estimate the fraction of
soil that is visible in the vertical which, in turn, allowed to assess
whether the vegetation corresponded to bare soil patches or holes
in developed canopies (gap fraction), sunlit or shaded from the
canopy (values ranging from 0 to 1). Thus, the cover and management
factor for the undisturbed forest (CUF) is calculated as: