Assessing Soil Loss by Water Erosion in a Typical Mediterranean Ecosystem of Northern Greece under Current and Future Rainfall Erosivity

Abstract

Soil is a non-renewable resource essential for life existence. During the last decades it has been threatened by accelerating erosion with negative consequences for the environment and the economy. The aim of the current study was to assess soil loss changes in a typical Mediterranean ecosystem of Northern Greece, under climate change. To this end, freely available geospatial data was collected and processed using open-source software package. The widespread RUSLE empirical erosion model was applied to estimate soil loss. Current and future rainfall erosivity were derived from a national scale study considering average weather conditions and RCMs outputs for the medium Representative Concentration Pathway scenario (RCP4.5). Results showed that average rainfall erosivity (R-Factor) was 508.85 MJ mm ha h−1 y−1 while the K-factor ranged from 0.0008 to 0.05 t ha h ha−1 MJ−1 mm−1 and LS-factor reached 60.51. Respectively, C-factor ranged from 0.01 to 0.91 and P-factor ranged from 0.42 to 1. The estimated potential soil loss rates will remain stable for the near future period (2021–2050), while an increase of approximately 9% is expected by the end of the 21th century (2071–2100). The results suggest that appropriate erosion mitigation strategies should be applied to reduce erosion risk. Subsequently, appropriate mitigation measures per Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) categories are proposed. It is worth noting that the proposed methodology has a high degree of transferability as it is based on open-source data.

Assessment of Water-Induced Soil Erosion as a Threat to Natura 2000 Protected Areas in Crete Island, Greece

“…The processes of soil loss by water involve the detachment of soil particles by raindrops and flowing water, their transportation though surface runoff and, lastly, the accumulation of eroded material in depositional areas. The main natural factors affecting the rates of soil erosion by water are precipitation [10][11][12], topography [13,14], soil texture [15,16] and land use/cover [17][18][19]. On the other hand, human activities such as intensive ploughing [20], unsuitable agricultural practices [21], overgrazing [22,23] and deforestation [24] and related land use changes significantly accelerate soil erosion rates.…”

Land Use and Land Cover Changes and Its Impact on Soil Erosion in Stung Sangkae Catchment of Cambodia

“…Most empirical models do not provide information about deposition of stream sedimentation which limits their application in modeling mass balance [39]. According to Stefanidis et al [42] the most commonly used empirical erosion model is USLE [40], and the revised version RUSLE [20]. The main advantages of the USLE/RUSLE model are flexibility, data availability and extensive literature research, making this method suitable for almost all types of conditions and environments [43].…”

“…Soil erosion changes in the future can be done by developing modeling scenarios of the two most dynamic factors in soil erosion, i.e., rainfall erosivity and land cover change [53]. Currently, it is believed that large-scale estimation of soil loss rates under climate change conditions is possible [42]. According to Panagos et al [53], the prediction of soil erosion changes in the future are mainly dependent on modeling future rainfall erosivity, land use changes and impacts of policies on soil loss.…”

“…Using a comprehensive statistical modeling method (Gaussian Process Regression) will help to predict rainfall erosivity according to climate change scenarios by selecting the most appropriate covariates (monthly precipitation, temperature datasets and bioclimatic layers) [53]. Extreme rainfall will be more intense, and natural disasters will be related to more frequent rainfall; as a result, soil erosion rates are expected to increase in response to climate change [5,42]. Moreover, climatologists have discovered that the earth is warming, and as the global temperature rises, the water cycle becomes more vigorous.…”

The Link between Landscape Characteristics and Soil Losses Rates over a Range of Spatiotemporal Scales: Hubei Province, China

“…Soil erosion is influenced by both natural factors and human activities, including regional topography and geomorphology, non-linearly varying rainfall erosion, soil erodibility, vegetation cover, and artificial protection measures [ 6 , 7 ]. Humans can influence soil erosion by changing land use and land cover [ 8 , 9 ].…”