Assessing the determinants of rill erosion on roadcuts in the south eastern region of South Africa
Abstract. Erosion on roadcuts is a concern due to potential to cause environmental degradation which has significant economic costs. It is therefore critical to understand the relationship between roadcut characteristics and soil erosion for designing roadcuts that are less vulnerable to erosion and to help road rehabilitation works. This study investigated the characteristics (i.e. gradient, length and percentage of vegetation cover) of degraded (i.e. with rills) and non-degraded roadcuts (i.e. without rills) and explored the relationship of the roadcut characteristics with the dimensions (widths and depths) of the rills. Degraded roadcuts were steep (52.21°), long (10.70 m), and had a low percentage of vegetation cover (24.12) when compared to non-degraded roadcuts which had a gradient of 28.24°, length of 6.38 m and 91.7% of vegetation cover. Moreover, the gradient and percentage of vegetation cover of the roadcuts significantly determined the rill dimensions. The widths and depths of the rills increased with the increase in slope gradient and decreased with an increase in percentage of the vegetation cover. Moreover, the widths and depths of the rills decreased downslope of the roadcuts. Based on these results, re-vegetation of roadcuts as well as construction of gentle gradients could minimise rill erosion and hence the negative onsite and offsite effects.