Land degradation has been a major global issue because of its adverse impact on agronomicrnproductivity, the environment, and its effect on food security and the quality of life. Soilrnerosion is the major form of land degradation in Ethiopia. This study is done in AwassarnCatchment, which is the central part of the Main Ethiopian Rift. Assessment of soil erosionrnrate in the study area is done using the statistical and relatively simple soil erosion model thatrnis USLE. All factors used in USLE were derived independently, while in reality the factorsrninteract in a dynamic system and several assumptions have to be made to adapt the model to arngiven set of conditions. Based on the analysis of the data, 97.51 % of the study area isrncharacterized by low to moderate soil erosion rate (0-10.09 t/ha/yr) and 2.49% of the studyrnarea is characterized by high to extremely high soil erosion rate (10.09-20 .79 t/ha/yr). Out ofrn97.51% of the study area that is characterized by low to moderate soil erosion rate, 88 .05% ofrnit is associated with slope gradient factor less than one. 49.32% of areas with erosion raterngreater than I 0.09t/ha/yr (30.92 km2rn) are associated with slope gradient factor greater than orrnequal to one. And 6.37% (1.97 km2rn) of those areas with erosion rate greater than 10.09t/ha/yrrn(30.92 km2rn) are related to slope length greater than or equal to 4.5. And areas with high tornextremely high erosion rates are associated either higher slope grad ient factor or withrndegraded bare land and grassland and shrub land cover. Out of the whole catchment, 30.24rnkm2 lies under high to extremely high soil erosion rate and this requires immediate .rnconservation measures like planting trees which can hold the soil intact. According to the ratesrnof soil tolerance limits that are developed for tropical soils (0.2 and 11 t/ha/yr), 97.51% of thernstudy area is under tolerable soil erosion rate.rnBut one thing to remember is that the USLE measures only rill and interrill erosion thereforernthe overall soil erosion rate especially in the Muleti area where ground cracks are observedrncould be much higher than the predicted by the USLE. Thus, estimation of soil loss from thernground cracks in Muleti area should assessed by other models.rnTherefore the analysis of high-resolution remote sensing data combined with furth er spatialrninformation in a GIS environment provides an integrated and cheap tool for resourcernmanagement within the scope of sustainable development.