Modeling Soil Erosion Vulnerability Using RUSLE: A Case Study Upstream of Nangal Reservoir, India

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Sunil Nehra ◽  
Koyel Sur ◽  
V. K. Verma
Keyword(s):  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Watershed Management ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
Alos Palsar ◽  
Rusle Model

Simulation of soil erosion is an important phenomenon in watershed management studies because of the dynamic nature of soil. The present study demonstrates the capabilities of remote sensing coupled with GIS to extract soil erosion vulnerabilities using RUSLE model. Therefore this study understands spatial distribution of soil erosion at a macro-watershed scale. The input parameters for RUSLE model include the rainfall and erosivity (R) derived using the TRMM satellite precipitation product for a long term implementing regression model. The soil erodibility (K) factor is estimated using available soil map, and the topographic factor (LS) from 12m ALOS PALSAR DEM. The management practice information was extracted from the land use / cover map based on 30m multi spectral LANDSAT-8 of three season datasets. The RUSLE model predicted very low, low, moderate, high and very high erosion in 84.8%, 7.9%, 4.4%, 2.3% and 0.7% of reviewed area, respectively. The results were validated with ground infromation and NDVI, being the main identifiers of soil erosion. As presence of high vegetation indicates higher strength to hold the soil particles together and prevent soil erosion, correlation coefficient was generated to find accuracy of the results with NDVI of the area. The strong positive correlation (0.5) provided scientific support that prediction of soil erosion by RUSLE can be effectively used for watershed management and combating action plan for soil erosion.

scholarly journals RUSLE Model Based Annual Soil Loss Quantification for Soil Erosion Protection in Fincha Catchment, Abay River Basin, Ethiopia.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Habtamu Tamiru ◽  
Meseret Wagari
Keyword(s):  
Soil Erosion ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Soil Loss ◽  
Annual Rainfall ◽  
Rainfall Erosivity ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Land Resources ◽  
Rusle Model ◽  
Factor C ◽  
Significant Factors

Abstract Background: The quantity of soil loss as a result of soil erosion is dramatically increasing in catchment where land resources management is very weak. The annual dramatic increment of the depletion of very important soil nutrients exposes the residents of this catchment to high expenses of money to use artificial fertilizers to increase the yield. This paper was conducted in Fincha Catchment where the soil is highly vulnerable to erosion, however, where such studies are not undertaken. This study uses Fincha catchment in Abay river basin as the study area to quantify the annual soil loss, where such studies are not undertaken, by implementing Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model developed in ArcGIS version 10.4. Results: Digital Elevation Model (12.5 x 12.5), LANDSAT 8 of Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS), Annual Rainfall of 10 stations (2010-2019) and soil maps of the catchment were used as input parameters to generate the significant factors. Rainfall erosivity factor (R), soil erodibility factor (K), cover and management factor (C), slope length and steepness factor (LS) and support practice factor (P) were used as soil loss quantification significant factors. It was found that the quantified average annual soil loss ranges from 0.0 to 76.5 t ha-1 yr-1 was obtained in the catchment. The area coverage of soil erosion severity with 55%, 35% and 10% as low to moderate, high and very high respectively were identified. Conclusion: Finally, it was concluded that having information about the spatial variability of soil loss severity map generated in the RUSLE model has a paramount role to alert land resources managers and all stakeholders in controlling the effects via the implementation of both structural and non-structural mitigations. The results of the RUSLE model can also be further considered along with the catchment for practical soil loss quantification that can help for protection practices.

scholarly journals A Multiscale Tiered Approach to Quantify Contributions: A Case Study of PM2.5 in South Korea During 2010–2017

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minah Bae ◽  
Byeong-Uk Kim ◽  
Hyun Cheol Kim ◽  
Soontae Kim
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Sparse Matrix ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Weather Research And Forecasting ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Operator Kernel

We estimated long-term foreign contributions to the particulate matter of 2.5 μm or less in diameter (PM2.5) concentrations in South Korea with a set of air quality simulations. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE)-Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system was used to simulate the base and sensitivity case after a 50% reduction of foreign emissions. The effects of horizontal modeling grid resolutions (27- and 9-km) was also investigated. For this study, we chose PM2.5 in South Korea during 2010–2017 for the case study and emissions from China as a representative foreign source. The 9-km simulation results show that the 8-year average contribution of the Chinese emissions in 17 provinces ranged from 40–65%, which is ~4% lower than that from the 27-km simulation for the high-tier government segments (particularly prominent in coastal areas). However, for the same comparison for low-tier government segments (i.e., 250 prefectures), the 9-km simulation presented lowered the foreign contribution by up to 10% compared to that from the 27-km simulation. Based on our study results, we recommend using high-resolution modeling results for regional contribution analyses to develop an air quality action plan as the receptor coverage decreases.

scholarly journals The River Chief System and River Pollution Control in China: A Case Study of Foshan

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Liu ◽  
Yongqin David Chen ◽  
Tao Liu ◽  
Lu Lin
Keyword(s):  
Management Practice ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
River Pollution ◽  
Effective Management ◽  
Pearl River Delta Region ◽  
Tai Lake ◽  
Accountability Mechanism ◽  
The Pearl River

The river chief system (RCS) has been innovatively implemented in Wuxi, China since 2007 for the eutrophication control of Tai Lake. In 2016, RCS was eventually promoted throughout China to reinforce river and lake protection. The success of this new river management system is generally attributed to collaboration, accountability, and differentiation effects. This research takes Foshan in the Pearl River Delta region as a case study to examine the feasibility and weaknesses in the implementation of the RCS. Prior to the formal adoption of RCS, a coordinating organization for river improvement undertaking was established in Foshan to overcome fragmentation in water management. Compared with this practice, the new RCS can strengthen the collaboration of administrative authorities and establish a considerably sophisticated and effective management structure. Emphasis on evaluation and accountability mechanisms guarantees that management goals can be achieved. However, similar to the previous one, the new system remains a temporary management practice and its outcomes depend partially on the commitment and capability of each river chief. The imperfect evaluation and accountability mechanism also weaken its long-term effectiveness in improving river water quality. Therefore, some corresponding policy instruments are needed to ensure that RCS can be implemented smoothly.

scholarly journals A Remote Sensing Based Method to Detect Soil Erosion in Forests

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanqiu Xu ◽  
Xiujuan Hu ◽  
Huade Guan ◽  
Bobo Zhang ◽  
Meiya Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Soil Loss ◽  
Southern China ◽  
Red Soil ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Large Spatial Scale ◽  
Five Factors

Rainwater-induced soil erosion occurring in the forest is a special phenomenon of soil erosion in many red soil areas. Detection of such soil erosion is essential for developing land management to reduce soil loss in areas including southern China and other red soil regions of the world. Remotely sensed canopy cover is often used to determine the potential of soil erosion over a large spatial scale, which, however, becomes less useful in forest areas. This study proposes a new remote sensing method to detect soil erosion under forest canopy and presents a case study in a forest area in southern China. Five factors that are closely related to soil erosion in forest were used as discriminators to develop the model. These factors include fractional vegetation coverage, nitrogen reflectance index, yellow leaf index, bare soil index and slope. They quantitatively represent vegetation density, vegetation health status, soil exposure intensity and terrain steepness that are considered relevant to forest soil erosion. These five factors can all be derived from remote sensing imagery based on related thematic indices or algorithms. The five factors were integrated to create the soil erosion under forest model (SEUFM) through Principal Components Analysis (PCA) or a multiplication method. The case study in the forest area in Changting County of southern China with a Landsat 8 image shows that the first principal component-based SEUFM achieves an overall accuracy close to 90%, while the multiplication-based model reaches 81%. The detected locations of soil erosion in forest provide the target areas to be managed from further soil loss. The proposed method provides a tool to understand more about soil erosion in forested areas where soil erosion is usually not considered an issue. Therefore, the method is useful for soil conservation in forest.

Dynamics of Soil Erosion as Influenced by Watershed Management Practices: A Case Study of the Agula Watershed in the Semi-Arid Highlands of Northern Ethiopia

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 889-905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayele Almaw Fenta ◽  
Hiroshi Yasuda ◽  
Katsuyuki Shimizu ◽  
Nigussie Haregeweyn ◽  
Aklilu Negussie
Keyword(s):  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Watershed Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Northern Ethiopia ◽  
Semi Arid

scholarly journals RECONSTRUCTING THE LANDSCAPE OF THE PAST IN THE AGRICULTURAL TERRACES OF THE CITY OF AVDAT

2019 ◽  
Vol XLII-2/W15 ◽  
pp. 117-124
Author(s):  
R. Arav ◽  
S. Filin ◽  
Y. Avni
Keyword(s):  
Soil Erosion ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Arid Environments ◽  
Agricultural Terraces ◽  
Change Mechanism ◽  
Erosion Processes ◽  
Anthropogenic Intervention ◽  
The City

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Large areas in the arid Southern Levant are dotted with ancient agricultural terraces and runoff harvesting installations. In the Negev Highlands, Israel, they were constructed in the 3rd&amp;ndash;4th centuries CE, maintained for 6&amp;ndash;7 centuries, and then abandoned after the 10th century. Their design pattern and foundations provide a rare insight to the prevailing environmental conditions during the middle Holocene, while their 600&amp;ndash;700 years cultivation tells the story of their maitainance and desert agriculture in these regions. From their abandonment onwards, they documented more than 1000 years of land degradation and soil erosion till present time. In this paper, we follow a complete cycle of desert agriculture of two sites near the UNESCO world-heritage town of Avdat. We reconstruct the landscape at the period pre-dating the first anthropogenic intervention, through the centuries of cultivation, and into a millennium of abandonment until the present erosion phase. We use high-resolution 3-D data to document the erosion and environmental dynamics during these two millennia, and to compute rates of siltation and erosion. Long-term measures of such kind are unique, as it is rare to find a millennium-scale documentation of soil erosion processes. Their study improves our understanding of the long-term environmental change mechanism acting in arid environments. The detailed analysis of these installations also offers insights into methods for soil conservation, for sustainable desert inhabitation, and for strategies to protect world-heritage installations. As the globe-wide struggle to combat soil erosion becomes urgent, this case study becomes even more relevant.</p>

scholarly journals MODELLING OF SOIL EROSION PROCESSES AND RUNOFF FOR SUSTAINABLE WATERSHED MANAGEMENT: CASE STUDY OUED EL ABID WATERSHED, MOROCCO

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabri EL MOUATASSIME ◽  
Ahmed BOUKDIR ◽  
Ismail KARAOUI ◽  
Goran SKATARIC ◽  
Marina NACKA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Watershed Management ◽  
Erosion Processes ◽  
Management Case Study

scholarly journals Improving the Resilience of Water Resources after Wildfire through Collaborative Watershed Management: A Case Study from Colorado

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Blount ◽  
Adrianne Kroepsch
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Watershed Management ◽  
The United States ◽  
Watershed Scale ◽  
Collaborative Groups ◽  
Political Boundaries ◽  
Management Groups ◽  
Collaborative Efforts

This case study introduces students to the impacts that wildfires have on water resources as well as the challenges associated with managing these risks. By examining the development of a collaborative watershed group galvanized by the 2012 High Park Fire in Colorado, the case engages with the longstanding conundrum of how better to align ecological and social scales in natural resources management. It explores the role that collaborative groups are playing in addressing water resources problems at the watershed scale despite fragmented governance at that scale. A phased case study format allows students to investigate the motivations of diverse stakeholders and appreciate the challenges faced in watershed-based collaboration after a catalyzing event, such as a wildfire. Upon completion of the lesson, students will be able to (1) explain wildfires’ impacts to water resources and stakeholders; (2) assess the challenges and benefits of approaching management based on the physical boundaries of a watershed, rather than political boundaries; (3) identify and interrogate how collaborative watershed groups form as well as the factors that are key to their success; and (4) evaluate the outcomes of these collaborative efforts and their ongoing strengths and opportunities as well as their limitations and challenges. This line of inquiry is increasingly significant as collaborative watershed management groups proliferate in the United States, in many instances catalyzed by a disaster. Ultimately, this case study explores how collaborative watershed groups emerge and the role(s) they play in tackling long-term, multi-jurisdictional, and watershed-scale management challenges.

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