Regional Scale Erosion Assessment of a Sub-tropical Highland Segment in the Western Ghats of Kerala, South India

Abstract

Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) has been used in combination with remote sensing and GIS techniques to assess the spatial pattern and annual rate of soil erosion in the Munnar Forest Division in Western Ghats, Kerala, India. The RUSLE takes into account several factors such as rainfall, soil erodibility, slope length and steepness, land cover and erosion control practice for soil erosion prediction. Maximum soil loss of 109.31 t h −1 y −1 and the areas with extreme erosion (erosion is higher than 50 t h −1 y −1 ) are confined to 11.46% of the total area, while the area occupied by severe erosion (erosion rate between 25 and 50 t h −1 y −1 ) is 27.53%. The high rate of annual soil erosion is associated with areas of high terrain alteration from the plantation activities and highly elevated hills/ plateau margins with steep side slopes.

Spatial Estimation of Soil Erosion Risk Using RUSLE Approach, RS, and GIS Techniques: A Case Study of Kufranja Watershed, Northern Jordan

“…This explained i (Figure 9). Generally, if the estimated(A)value is high, it means a higher rate of sediment yield, while a lower value denotes a lower rate of sediment yield [47]. The Wadi Kufranja watershed was classified into five soil erosion risk categories (Figure 10).…”

“…Information on factors leading to soil erosion can be utilized as a guide for formulating appropriate soil conservation and land management plans. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is frequently used to estimate the magnitude of soil erosion loss from watershed areas, the spatial distribution of soil erosion severity, and delimiting sites vulnerable to soil erosion for both agricultural and forested watersheds [30,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. Finally, the RUSLE model has several advantages: 1) it is easy to implement and understand from a functional perspective [32], 2) is compatible with the Geographic Information System (GIS), and 3) the data requirements to implement the model are not too complex or unattainable especially in a developing country [49].…”

Spatial and Temporal Variation of C– Factor and Soil Erosion in a Semi-Arid Watershed: A Case Study in Mahabubnagar District

“…Soil erodibility (K) refers to the inherent susceptibility of soils to erosion, by raindrop impact and runoff and it reflects the physical and chemical properties of soils affecting detachability, transportability, aggregate stability and Semi-Arid Watershed: A Case Study in Mahabubnagar District www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org infiltration capacity (Prasannakumar et al, 2011;Farhan et al, 2013). In this study, soil texture map ( Figure 2) was derived from the soil map, prepared by NBSSLUP, Govt.…”

“…But in the recent years, soil is being subjected to rapid deterioration, due to various natural and anthropogenic activities. Soil erosion is one of the most significant and widespread form of degradation, which has both environmental and economic impacts, especially in agricultural areas (Prasannakumar et al, 2011). It is a natural process of detachment of soil particles, from the uppermost layer of soil profile and transporting them elsewhere, by erosive agents such as water or wind (Ganasri and Ramesh, 2015).The removal of fertile soil from the upper layer resulting in the loss of soil nutrients and makes the soil unproductive, which in turn reduces the agricultural productivity at imperceptible rates, over extended periods (Lal, 2003;Dipanwita et al, 2015).…”

Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Soil Erosion Risk in Małopolska (Poland), Supported by an Object-Based Analysis of High-Resolution Satellite Images

“…Detection of conservation tillage practices seems to be the only exception; it is possible because of differences caused by tillage practices in surface roughness and crop residuals' coverage. In some studies P-factor values have been assigned to land use classes derived from a classification of satellite imagery (PRASANNAKUMAR et al 2011), assuming that some practices commonly occur within a given land use category in the studied region.…”