The Importance of Environmental Factors for the Development of Water Erosion of Soil in Agricultural Land: The Southern Part of Hronská Pahorkatina Hill Land, Slovakia

Abstract

The water erosion research was carried out in the lowland type of hilly landscape. The aim was to monitor and evaluate the importance of environmental factors (steepness of slope, relief shapes, aspect, slope length, combination slope length (L) and slope (S)—LS factor, types of land use changes) for the development of water erosion. We focused on the identification of areas threatened by erosion by interpreting aerial photographs from several time periods. This was followed by verification of erosion using soil probes. We identified 408.44 ha of areas affected by erosion, and measured the depth of soil and “A” horizons thickness. The environmental factors were modeled in geographical information systems by tools for spatially oriented data. Subsequently, the influence and significance of individual environmental factors were compared, and the probability of erosion was statistically estimated. The decisive factors in the formation of erosive surfaces are the LS factor and the slope. We also consider the factor of the relief shape to be important. The shape did not appear to be very significant as a separately evaluated factor, but all convex parts correlate with the identified erosion surfaces. The susceptibility of erosion related to the aspect of the slopes to the cardinal directions has not been confirmed. Types of land use changes with the most significant relation of erosion were confirmed in areas of strong intensification. We confirmed the importance of factors and land use for the development of erosion processes.

A Detailed Identification of Erosionally Endangered Agricultural Land in Slovakia (Case Study of Nitra Upland)

“…We found that almost all soils on slopes with a slope less than 3 • were accumulated and eroded on slopes with a slope greater than 3 • . Similar research results, in which there were significant manifestations of erosion in moderately rugged upland parts, were documented by [10]. To identify dominant factors, respectively, under the conditions of erosion activity the average depths of humus horizons of individual soil types were determined as follows:…”

“…Great emphasis on preventing the effects of water erosion activity by modeling soil erosion (which makes it possible to anticipate erosion and prevent soil erosion) was presented by the Slovak authors [7,8]. Foreign authors dealt with this issue, especially [9,10]. Landscape modeling as well as regional development issues are discussed in [11][12][13][14] and others.…”

Feasibility Assessment of a Magnetic Layer Detection Method for Field Applications

“…More erosion monitoring is essential to inform long-term soil conservation in this region [3]; however, obtaining the raw field data of soil erosion in the region remains challenging. Many types of monitoring methods are available, such as erosion pins [4,5], runoff plots [6,7], 3D laser scanners [8,9], real-time kinematic (RTK)-GPS [10,11], aerial photos or remote sensing [12,13], and tracers [14,15]. Equations for predicting soil erosion have also been developed, such as the universal soil loss equation or revisions thereof [16][17][18].…”