Modelling soil erosion risk in a mountainous watershed of Mid-Himalaya by integrating RUSLE model with GIS

Abstract

Article Info Received : 28.06.2016 Accepted : 01.09.2016 Soil erosion is one of the major cause of land degradation and is a serious threat to food security and agricultural sustainability. Revised Universal Soil Loss equation (RUSLE) model using remote sensing (RS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) inputs was employed to estimate soil erosion risk in a watershed of mid-Himalaya in Uttarakhand state, India. Spatial distribution of soil erosion risk area in the watershed was estimated by integrating various RUSLE factors (R, K, LS, C, P) in raster based GIS environment. RUSLE model factor maps were generated using remote sensing satellite data (IRS LISS III and LANDSAT-8) and Digital elevation model. Agriculture (59%) was found to be the dominant land use system followed by scrub land (20%) in the watershed. Rainfall erosivity (R) factor was estimated using past 23 years rainfall data. SRTM DEM was used to generate slope length -steepness (LS) factor in this highly rugged terrain. Nearly 70% of the watershed is having steep to moderately steep slope (>40%). Satellite data was interpreted to prepare physiographic map at 1:50,000 scale. Surface soil samples collected in each physiographic unit was analyzed to generate soil erodibility (K) map. Soil erodibility factor ranged from 0.033 to 0.077 in the watershed. Soil erosion risk analysis showed that 36.25%, 9.31%, 15.80%, 15.27%, 11.46% and 11.89% area of watershed falls under very low, low, moderate, moderate high, high and very high erosion risk classes respectively. The average annual erosion rate was predicted to be 65.84 t/ha/yr. The soil erosion rates were predicted to vary from 3.24 t/ha/yr in dense mixed forest cover to 87.98 t/ha/yr in open scrub land. The soil erosion map thus generated employing remote sensing and GIS techniques, can serve as a tool for deriving strategies for effective planning and implementation of various management and conservation practices for soil and water conservation in the watershed.

Tarımsal ürün grupları bazında konumsal erozyon uygunluk analizi: Seyhan Havzası örneği

“…Yağmur aşındırma (R) faktörü yağmur yağışının toprağı aşındırma oranının bir ölçümünü vermektedir. RUSLE modeli kapsamında R faktörü doğrudan hesaplanması için uzun dönemli yağış miktarı ve yoğunluğu verilerine gereksinim vardır (Kalambukattu & Kumar, 2017). Fakat R faktörü ülkemizde de olduğu gibi yağmur yoğunluğunun meteoroloji istasyonlarınca ölçülmediği sahalarda deneysel eşitlikler ile hesaplanabilmektedir.…”

Modeling Soil Erosion Using RUSLE and GIS – A Case Study of Korifla Sub-Watershed (Central Morocco)

“…With its revised (RUSLE) and modified (MUSLE) versions. RUSLE has been adopted in several countries in the world as an equation of soil loss giving the best results in planning soil and water conservation in a sustainable manner (Kalambukattu, 2017;Tesema, 2020) and surface erosion models based on RUSLE are widely accepted and increasingly used for applications spanning field, catchment, national, and even global scales (Borrelli, 2017). For this study, the objective is to estimate water erosion in the Korifla sub-basin and to consider the soil loss map as a decision tool to implement soil conservation measures so remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are becoming more important tools in interactive decision support and operational planning for risk management operations (Bou Kheir, 2006;Gliz, 2015).…”

Sustainability Analysis of Soil Erosion Control in Rwanda: Case Study of the Sebeya Watershed

“…The degradation of soil quality (soil and nutrient losses and lower infiltration rates), and the downstream river and lake sedimentation, are the main on-site and off-site damages of water erosion. In addition, there are numerous consequences, such as food security and agricultural sustainability, water supply, reservoir storage capacity, and the ecology of freshwater bodies, that are adversely affected [7][8][9]. Therefore, soil erosion control is the best option for enhancing agricultural productivity while preventing river and lake sedimentation [10].…”