Assessment of Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield in a Semi-arid Region of India using RUSLE and Geospatial Techniques

By : Padmini Pani , Robi Routh , Surya Narayan Mohapatra

Page No: 234-255

Abstract
A considerable amount of plant supportive top soil removal due to water erosion is a major concern at present. The semi-arid Chambal Badlands is one of the regions, where top soil loss is a growing concern for centuries. A huge quantity of soil loss in the region experiences every monsoon season. Quantifying soil loss is a challenging due to its severely dissected topography. The objective of this study is to estimate and map the mean annual soil loss as well as sediment yield in most severely soil erosion affected district of Morena in Chambal region. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation and Sediment Delivery Ratio with Integration of Geospatial Techniques have been applied using various open sources data to address the objectives. It has been found that soil erosion has been varied in 1985, 2005 and 2014 respectively. In the year 2005, the soil loss has been reduced compared to 1985, which has been higher again in 2014 (0–66.00 tons/hectare/year in 2005 increased to 0–67.10 tons/hectare/year in 2014), especially when the total waste land has been reduced substantially. The area seems to be going through active erosional process which is subsided by the anthropogenic process in a form of gully/ravine land levelling. The ravine levelled lands are prone to further soil loss in a long run. Therefore, proper management practice needs to be introduced to prevent further soil loss.

Authors :
Padmini Pani
Professor (Associate), Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

Robi Routh
Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Surya Narayana Mohapatra
School of Studies in Earth Science, Jiwaji University, Gwalior.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/ATNAGI.2022.42.02.2