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We aim to evaluate physical characteristics that, when submitted to agricultural use, can promote the formation and development of linear erosion processes. To do so, we selected a subbasin with intense erosion activity located at the western region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. In this area, we mapped linear erosion features, such as furrows, ravines, and badlands, in the years 1963, 1997, and 2016 and also the variables lithology, landforms, slope, and land use. Subsequently, we analyzed the distribution of erosion forms in the variables in the three years. As a result, with the extensive and continuous use of pasture for at least five decades, we verified that erosion has been more active on silty-clay lithologies, slopes of 15-47% and =47%, and on concave slopes, reaching lands with other characteristics through regressive erosion and the edge effect. Slope concaves comprised ravines and mostly badlands, and served as connectors between erosion processes that occur in higher areas and those occurring in sectors of lower altitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]