Hi @292389919 -
If you are interested in understanding which places on the landscape are retaining sediment, we recommend using the sed_deposition.tif output of the model, not sed_retention.tif. sed_retention.tif compares the current landscape to a landscape that is entirely bare ground, so it’s not surprising that the values are very large. It is also intended to be used as an index, not absolute values. sed_deposition.tif quantifies the amount of sediment deposited on the landscape as it moves downslope toward streams.
I’ll also note that the USLE equation that underlies the SDR model is known not to work very well in areas of steep slope, and this often produces incorrectly high values of erosion in these places. I don’t know if the places with very high sediment retention in your map have steep slopes, but if so, that could be another reason for those values.
If you search this forum, you’ll also find other discussions about sed_retention and sed_deposition that may be interesting.
~ Stacie