Spatial modelling of soil erosion potential in a mountainous watershed of South-eastern Serbia

Soil erosion is a major environmental issue in Australia. It reduces land productivity and has off-site effects of decreased water quality. Broad-scale spatially distributed soil erosion estimation is essential for prioritising erosion control programs and as a component of broader assessments of natural resource condition. This paper describes spatial modelling methods and results that predict sheetwash and rill erosion over the Australian continent using the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) and spatial data layers for each of the contributing environmental factors. The RUSLE has been used before in this way but here we advance the quality of estimation. We use time series of remote sensing imagery and daily rainfall to incorporate the effects of seasonally varying cover and rainfall intensity, and use new digital maps of soil and terrain properties. The results are compared with a compilation of Australian erosion plot data, revealing an acceptable consistency between predictions and observations. The modelling results show that: (1) the northern part of Australia has greater erosion potential than the south; (2) erosion potential differs significantly between summer and winter; (3) the average erosion rate is 4.1 t/ha.year over the continent and about 2.9 × 109 tonnes of soil is moved annually which represents 3.9% of global soil erosion from 5% of world land area; and (4) the erosion rate has increased from 4 to 33 times on average for agricultural lands compared with most natural vegetated lands.

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Modelling soil erosion risk in a mountainous watershed of Mid-Himalaya by integrating RUSLE model with GIS

EURASIAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE (EJSS) ◽

10.18393/ejss.286442 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 92-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Justin Kalambukattu ◽

Suresh Kumar

Keyword(s):

Soil Erosion ◽

Rusle Model ◽

Erosion Risk ◽

Soil Erosion Risk ◽

Mountainous Watershed

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Effect of fallowing practices on runoff and soil erosion in south-eastern Australia

Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture ◽

10.1071/ea9850628 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 628 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

JW Cooke

Keyword(s):

Soil Erosion ◽

Rough Surface ◽

Soil Loss ◽

Soil Surface ◽

North Central ◽

Central Victoria ◽

South Eastern ◽

Eastern Australia ◽

Chemical Fallow ◽

Runoff And Soil Loss

The effect on runoff and soil loss of four methods of preparation of fallow was investigated at each of three sites in north-central Victoria. There was a chemical fallow treatment (uncultivated) and three scarified treatments (smooth, medium and rough cultivation). When the results from the three sites were combined, there was 10.7 mm runoff from the uncultivated treatment, 5.1 mm from the smooth, 0.8 mm from the medium and 0.3 mm from the rough scarified treatments. Soil loss from the uncultivated treatment was 103 g/m2 compared with 87 g/m2 from the smooth, 22 g/m2 from the medium and 13 g/m2 from the rough treatment. The concentration of sediment in the runoff was negatively correlated (R2 = -0.56 to -0.98) with runoff. It ranged from 1.21% (w/w) for the uncultivated to 5.06% (w/w) for the rough scarified treatment. The results show that a regimen of minimum scarification to produce a rough surface, and then use of herbicides to control weeds, reduces soil loss compared with either an uncultivated or a smoothly cultivated soil surface.

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