Spatial delineation of soil erosion vulnerability in the Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia

Setegn, Shimelis Gebriye; Srinivasan, R.; Dargahi, Bijan; Melesse, Assefa M.

doi:10.1002/hyp.7476

Cited by 203 publications

(137 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Erosion is a natural process that is enhanced by human activities. It causes the loss of agricultural productivity and a decline of water quality [2][3][4]. It is estimated that about 10 million ha of cropland is lost in the world due to soil erosion every year [5] and is often a common occurrence in the Mediterranean and China [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The studies that have been carried out in the Lake Tana basin focused on modeling the sediment load, lake level fluctuation and water balance, and runoff volumes and identifying the erosion hot spot areas, analyzing runoff processes through conceptual hydrological modeling, and hydrological and suspended sediment modeling [3,16,[25][26][27]. Studies outside the Lake Tana basin found that infiltration furrows decreased direct runoff and sediment load but not sediment concentrations in the first three years of observation when gullies were present [23,28,29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of Soil Depth and Topography on the Effectiveness of Conservation Practices on Discharge and Soil Loss in the Ethiopian Highlands

Akale

Dagnew

Belete

et al. 2017

Land

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Abstract:Restoration of degraded landscapes through the implementation of soil and water conservation practices is considered a viable option to increase agricultural production by enhancing ecosystems. However, in the humid Ethiopian highlands, little information is available on the impact of conservation practices despite wide scale implementation. The objective of this research was to document the effect of conservation practices on discharge and sediment concentration and load in watersheds that have different soil depths and topography. Precipitation, discharge, and sediment concentration were measured from 2010 to 2012 in two watersheds in close proximity and located in the Lake Tana basin, Ethiopia: Tikur-Wuha and Guale watersheds. The Tikur-Wuha watershed has deep soils and a gentle slope stream channel. The Guale watershed has shallow soils and a steep slope stream channel. In early 2011, the local community installed upland conservation measures consisting of stone and soil bunds, waterways, cutoff drains, infiltration furrows, gully rehabilitation, and enclosures. The results show that conservation practices marginally decreased direct runoff in both watersheds and increased base flow in the Tikur-Wuha watershed. Average sediment concentration decreased by 81% in Tikur-Wuha and 45% in Guale. The practices intended to increase infiltration were most effective in the Tikur-Wuha watershed because the deep soil could store the infiltrated water and release it over a longer period of time after the rainy season than the steeper Guale watershed with shallow soils.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Soil Depth and Topography on the Effectiveness of Conservation Practices on Discharge and Soil Loss in the Ethiopian Highlands

Akale

Dagnew

Belete

et al. 2017

Land

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“…SWAT is often employed to simulate the discharge 15 in the Ethiopian highlands (Setegn, 2008;Setegn et al, 2009;Easton et al, 2010;Betrie et al, 2011;Setegn et al, 2011;Yasir et al, 2014). Easton et al (2010) and White et al (2011) modified SWAT to include saturation excess runoff which is one of the major runoff mechanisms in the highlands.…”

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confidence: 99%

Calculating the sediment budget of a tropical lake in the Blue Nile basin: Lake Tana

Zimale

Mogus

Alemu

et al. 2016

Preprint

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Soil erosion decreases soil fertility of the uplands and causes siltation of lakes and reservoirs. However, very little data exists to quantify accurately the impact of sediment on lakes in tropical monsoonal areas in the African highlands. Lake Tana is one of these lakes in Ethiopia. The objective of this study is to quantify the sediment budget for Lake Tana watershed with limited observational data. To overcome these limitations we use the Parameter Efficient Distributed (PED) model that has shown to perform well in the Ethiopian highlands. PED model parameters are calibrated using daily discharge data and 20 sediment concentration infrequently measured for establishing sediment rating curves for the major rivers. The calibrated model parameters are then used to predict the sediment budget for the period 1994-2009. Sediment retained in the lake is calculated from two bathymetric taken 15 years apart and the sediment leaving the lake is based on measured discharge and observed sediment concentrations. Results show that annually on average 34 Mg/ha/year of sediment is removed from the gauged part of the Lake Tana watersheds. Depending on the up scaling method, 14 to 32 Mg/ha/year is transported from the 25 watershed of which 82% to 96% (with the upper estimate more likely) is trapped on the floodplains and in the lake.

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“…Watershed management requires accurate discharge and sediment predictions. SWAT is often employed to simulate the discharge in the Ethiopian highlands (Betrie et al, 2011;Easton et al, 2010;Setegn et al, , 2009Setegn et al, , 2010aSetegn et al, , 2010bSetegn et al, , 2011Yasir et al, 2014). Easton et al (2010) and White et al (2011) modified SWAT to include saturation excess runoff, which is the major runoff mechanism in the highlands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Budgeting suspended sediment fluxes in tropical monsoonal watersheds with limited data: the Lake Tana basin

Zimale

Moges

Alemu

et al. 2017

Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics

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Soil erosion decreases soil fertility of the uplands and causes siltation of lakes and reservoirs; the lakes and reservoirs in tropical monsoonal African highlands are especially affected by sedimentation. Efforts in reducing loads by designing management practices are hampered by lack of quantitative data on the relationship of erosion in the watersheds and sediment accumulation on flood plains, lakes and reservoirs. The objective of this study is to develop a prototype quantitative method for estimating sediment budget for tropical monsoon lakes with limited observational data. Four watersheds in the Lake Tana basin were selected for this study. The Parameter Efficient Distributed (PED) model that has shown to perform well in the Ethiopian highlands is used to overcome the data limitations and recreate the missing sediment fluxes. PED model parameters are calibrated using daily discharge data and the occasionally collected sediment concentration when establishing the sediment rating curves for the major rivers. The calibrated model parameters are then used to predict the sediment budget for the 1994-2009 period. Sediment retained in the lake is determined from two bathymetric surveys taken 20 years apart whereas the sediment leaving the lake is calculated based on measured discharge and observed sediment concentrations. Results show that annually on average 34 t/ha/year of sediment is removed from the gauged part of the Lake Tana watersheds. Depending on the up-scaling method from the gauged to the ungauged part, 21 to 32 t/ha/year (equivalent to 24-38 Mt/year) is transported from the upland watersheds of which 46% to 65% is retained in the flood plains and 93% to 96% is trapped on the flood plains and in the lake. Thus, only 4-7% of all sediment produced in the watersheds leaves the Lake Tana Basin.

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Spatial delineation of soil erosion vulnerability in the Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia

Cited by 203 publications

References 32 publications

Impact of Soil Depth and Topography on the Effectiveness of Conservation Practices on Discharge and Soil Loss in the Ethiopian Highlands

Impact of Soil Depth and Topography on the Effectiveness of Conservation Practices on Discharge and Soil Loss in the Ethiopian Highlands

Calculating the sediment budget of a tropical lake in the Blue Nile basin: Lake Tana

Budgeting suspended sediment fluxes in tropical monsoonal watersheds with limited data: the Lake Tana basin

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