scholarly journals SPATIAL ASSESSMENT OF SOIL EROSION USING GIS-BASED UNIVERSAL SOIL LOSS EQUATION MODEL FOR ZUARI RIVER BASIN, GOA, INDIA

2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1 (SPECIAL ISSUE)) ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. D. Panditharathne ◽  
N. S. Abeysingha ◽  
K. G. S. Nirmanee ◽  
Ananda Mallawatantri

Soil erosion is one of the main forms of land degradation. Erosion contributes to loss of agricultural land productivity and ecological and esthetic values of natural environment, and it impairs the production of safe drinking water and hydroenergy production. Thus, assessment of soil erosion and identifying the lands more prone to erosion are vital for erosion management process. Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (Rusle) model supported by a GIS system was used to assess the spatial variability of erosion occurring at Kalu Ganga river basin in Sri Lanka. Digital Elevation Model (30 × 30 m), twenty years’ rainfall data measured at 11 rain gauge stations across the basin, land use and soil maps, and published literature were used as inputs to the model. The average annual soil loss in Kalu Ganga river basin varied from 0 to 134 t ha−1 year−1 and mean annual soil loss was estimated at 0.63 t ha−1 year−1. Based on erosion estimates, the basin landscape was divided into four different erosion severity classes: very low, low, moderate, and high. About 1.68% of the areas (4714 ha) in the river basin were identified with moderate to high erosion severity (>5 t ha−1 year−1) class which urgently need measures to control soil erosion. Lands with moderate to high soil erosion classes were mostly found in Bulathsinghala, Kuruwita, and Rathnapura divisional secretarial divisions. Use of the erosion severity information coupled with basin wide individual RUSLE parameters can help to design the appropriate land use management practices and improved management based on the observations to minimize soil erosion in the basin.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-23
Author(s):  
Dorje Dawa ◽  
Vairaj Arjune

Soil erosion is one of the most critical environmental issues with severe consequences. Hence, it continues to be a significant limitation in the progress of many developing countries. Prediction and assessment of soil loss are, therefore, of utmost importance for soil fertility conservation, land and water management. Recent technological advances have provided useful models through which remotely-sensed data for a large scale area can be analysed and interpreted. The present study adopts a physiographically, biologically and climatically unique model for the assessment of soil erosion in the Indian Himalayan Region. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation model was applied in conjunction with Geographic Information System to estimate the average annual rate of soil erosion at both state and district levels in India. The model was deployed using coarse resolution datasets to identify specific areas vulnerable to soil erosion. In determining the spatial distribution of average annual soil erosion within the study region, all cell-based parameters of the model were multiplied in the specified 500 m × 500 m spatial resolution. The spatial pattern of annual soil erosion indicates that maximum soil loss occurs in northern and eastern states whereas low rates of erosion is observed in the eastern-most part of the study area.


Author(s):  
Ertuğrul Karaş ◽  
İrfan Oğuz

Land use management requires controlling natural resources for sustainability. Soil erosion related to improper land use is a major issue around the world. Land degradation may harm the health of ecosystems. Defining the soil loss in a basin is the starting point in the restoration of soil quality for crop production. Reducing soil losses to a tolerable rate is one of the primary objectives for sustainability and soil conservation. Central Anatolia is under considerable risk due to an increase in the cultivation of marginal lands for food production. Cultivated lands have already been reached the final limits throughout the last 50 years. Moreover, forests and considerable areas of pasture have recently been converted to ploughed fields due to agricultural expansion. This study was conducted in the Sarısu basin to evaluate soil losses and land use management for sustainability. The Universal Soil Loss Equation model and Geographic Information System techniques were used to estimate the soil losses. The mean potential soil loss of the basin was calculated to be 1.88 t ha-1 per year with the Universal Soil Loss Equation model. These results are comparatively small when compared to the average value for Turkey of 13 t ha-1 yearly. Our calculated results are closer to the value for the Sakarya river basin, which is approximately 2.77 t ha-1 y-1. In this study, land usages in the Sarısu basin were evaluated in terms of soil losses, tolerable soil loss rates and soil conservation precautions.


Author(s):  
Hammad Gilani ◽  
Adeel Ahmad ◽  
Isma Younes ◽  
Sawaid Abbas

Abrupt changes in climatic factors, exploitation of natural resources, and land degradation contribute to soil erosion. This study provides the first comprehensive analysis of annual soil erosion dynamics in Pakistan for 2005 and 2015 using publically available climatic, topographic, soil type, and land cover geospatial datasets at 1 km spatial resolution. A well-accepted and widely applied Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) was implemented for the annual soil erosion estimations and mapping by incorporating six factors; rainfall erosivity (R), soil erodibility (K), slope-length (L), slope-steepness (S), cover management (C) and conservation practice (P). We used a cross tabular or change matrix method to assess the annual soil erosion (ton/ha/year) changes (2005-2015) in terms of areas and spatial distriburtions in four soil erosion classes; i.e. Low (<1), Medium (1–5], High (5-20], and Very high (>20). Major findings of this paper indicated that, at the national scale, an estimated annual soil erosion of 1.79 ± 11.52 ton/ha/year (mean ± standard deviation) was observed in 2005, which increased to 2.47 ±18.14 ton/ha/year in 2015. Among seven administrative units of Pakistan, in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, the average soil erosion doubled from 14.44 ± 35.70 ton/ha/year in 2005 to 28.03 ± 68.24 ton/ha/year in 2015. Spatially explicit and temporal annual analysis of soil erosion provided in this study is essential for various purposes, including the soil conservation and management practices, environmental impact assessment studies, among others.


Author(s):  
Sumayyah Aimi Mohd Najib

To determine the soil erosion in ungauged catchments, the author used 2 methods: Universal Soil Loss Equation model and sampling data. Sampling data were used to verify and validate data from model. Changing land use due to human activities will affect soil erosion. Land use has changed significantly during the last century in Pulau Pinang. The main rapid changes are related to agriculture, settlement, and urbanization. Because soil erosion depends on surface runoff, which is regulated by the structure of land use and brought about through changes in slope length, land-use changes are one of many factors influencing land degradation caused by erosion. The Universal Soil Loss Equation was used to estimate past soil erosion based on land uses from 1974 to 2012. Results indicated a significant increase in three land-use categories: forestry, built-up areas, and agriculture. Another method to evaluate land use changes in this study was by using landscape metrics analysis. The mean patch size of built-up area and forest increased, while agriculture land use decreased from 48.82 patches in 1974 to 22.46 patches in 2012. Soil erosion increased from an estimated 110.18 ton/km2/year in 1974 to an estimated 122.44 ton/km2/year in 2012. Soil erosion is highly related (R2 = 0.97) to the Shannon Diversity Index, which describes the diversity in land-use composition in river basins. The Shannon Diversity Index also increased between 1974 and 2012. The findings from this study can be used for future reference and for ungauged catchment research studies.


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