Assessment of Factors Affecting Ephemeral Gully Development in Badland Topography: A Case Study at Garbheta Badland (Pashchim Medinipur,

Abstract

Gully erosion in the Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, India has been an issue of anxiety, formed by the amputation of soil from narrow channels through the accretion of surface runoff. Here, we attempted to investigate the erosion variability of gully in a micro catchment area, and also scrutinized the gully cross-sectional areas as distinct components of gully volumes. Twelve gullies were randomly selected in different slopes. To determine the geometric growth of the gully dimensions and soil loss, the initial length of gully, the width of the gully and depth of respective gullies was monitored in different seasons. Univariate analysis was conducted to measure the association between gully head retreat and vegetation coverage, slope, rainfall volume and runoff contributing area. We found strong and significant relation between the slope of gully head and linear retreat in the pre monsoon (p < 0.008) and post monsoon (p < 0.024) season respectively. Conversely, rainfall volume and gully head retreat showed a strong relationship in the pre monsoon (r = 0.80), monsoon (r = 0.66) and post-monsoon period (r = 0.94); while meager relationship was observed with rainfall intensity (r = 0.06). Results also illustrated that the overall retreat of gully head had very strong and positive relationship with the runoff contributing area (r = 0.89, p < 0.001), and maximum gully erosion was observed in the monsoon period (55.67%). These results indicate that slope, rainfall and runoff contributing area have a strong positive influence on gully erosion in Paschim Medinipur district, since the initiation of the gully.

Modeling of potential gully erosion hazard using geo-spatial technology at Garbheta block, West Bengal in India

“…The climate is tropical type with hot, dry summers, having precipitations concentrated in monsoon period (July to September) (Sen et al 2004). Mean annual rainfall is about 1450 mm, distributed in 110 rainy days on an average, while mean annual temperature is 28°C and mean monthly temperatures range between 8°C in January and 43°C in June (Shit et al 2013a). The Shilabati River (Silai) is the main stream, originated from the Chhotanagpur Plate west to east for the length of about 26 km.…”

An experimental investigation of rill erosion processes in lateritic upland region: A pilot study

“…The parent material of the study area consists of tertiary and secondary lateritic, sands, silts and clay. Mean annual rainfall is about 1450 mm, distributed in 110 rainy days while mean annual temperature is 28 °C and mean monthly temperatures range between 8°C in January and 43 °C in June (Shit et al, 2013). The area is dominated by low shrubs, Eragrostis cynosuroides grass and some wild species.…”

“…Rills were generated by water erosion and consist of several characteristics including a steep incised channel with an active headcut (Bruno et al 2008;Stefano et al 2013;Shit et al, 2014). The expansion of rills is due to the multifarious interface of soil properties with a high spatial and temporal variability (Nachtergaele et al, 2001), in which the morphology of a rill and the rill's headcut morphology may be determinant over and above stochastically motivated processes (Sidorchuk, 2005;Flores-Cervantes et al, 2006;Shit et al, 2013). This leads to great difficulties in quantifying soil erosion processes and makes soil erosion measurements hardly comparable (Knapen et al, 2007;Auerswald et al, 2009).…”

An investigation into longitudinal forms of gullies within the “Grand Canyon” of Bengal, Eastern India

“…Laterite is a quite unique substrate for the development of gullies and globally, they are relatively sparse, being confined primarily to the tropics. In Eastern India, however, they occur extensively and a number of studies have investigated various facets of their evolution, most notably in the state of West Bengal (Aown & Kar, 2016;Bandyopadhyay, 1987Bandyopadhyay, , 1988Das & Bandyopadhyay, 1995, 1996Ghosh & Bhattacharya, 2012;Jha & Ghosh, 2020;Jha & Kapat, 2009;Kar & Bandyopadhyay, 1974;Majhi et al, 2021;Patel et al, 2020a;Sen, Sen, & Bandyopadhyay, 2004;Shit, Bhunia, & Maiti, 2013;Shit & Maiti, 2012;Shit, Paira, Bhunia, & Maiti, 2015). Most of these studies have focused on the general analysis of the terrain conditions, including morphometry, slope evolution, sediment transport, and development of micro-morphological forms at these locations.…”