Cover Management factor (C-factor)

Besides vegetation cover, several other land use and management factors affect soil loss, such as type of crop, tillage practice, etc.The influence of land use and management is often parameterisedin the cover-management factor (C-factor). The C-factor is amongthe five factors that are used to estimate the risk of soil erosionwithin the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and its revised version, the RUSLE. The C-factor is perhaps the most important factorwith regard to policy and land use decisions, as it represents conditions that can be most easily managed to reduce erosion. C-factor accounts for how land cover, crops and crop management cause soil loss to vary from those losses occurring in bare fallow areas. The C-factor is perhaps the most important factor with regard to policy and land use decisions, as it represents conditions that can be most easily managed to reduce erosion (European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC), 2025).