Abstract
Universal soil loss equation (USLE) was used in conjunction with a geographic information system to determine the influence of land use and land cover change (LUCC) on soil erosion potential of a reservoir catchment during the period 1989 to 2004. Results showed that the mean soil erosion potential of the watershed was increased slightly from 12.11 t ha − 1 year − 1 in the year 1989 to 13.21 t ha − 1 year − 1 in the year 2004. Spatial analysis revealed that the disappearance of forest patches from relatively flat areas, increased in wasteland in steep slope, and intensification of cultivation practice in relatively more erosion-prone soil were the main factors contributing toward the increased soil erosion potential of the watershed during the study period. Results indicated that transition of other land use land cover (LUC) categories to cropland was the most detrimental to watershed in terms of soil loss while forest acted as the most effective barrier to soil loss. A p value of 0.5503 obtained for two-tailed paired t test between the mean erosion potential of microwatersheds in 1989 and 2004 also indicated towards a moderate change in soil erosion potential of the watershed over the studied period. This study revealed that the spatial location of LUC parcels with respect to terrain and associated soil properties should be an important consideration in soil erosion assessment process.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.References
Asselman, N. E. M., & Middelkoop, H. (1995). Floodplain sedimentation: Quantities, patterns, and processes. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 20, 481–499.
Boers, P. C. M. (1996). Nutrient emissions from agriculture in the Netherlands: Causes and remedies. Water Science and Technology, 33, 183–189.
Cebecauer, T., & Hofierka, J. (2008). The consequences of land-cover changes on soil erosion distribution in Slovakia. Geomorphology, 98, 187–198.
De Moor, J. J. W., & Verstraeten, G. (2008). Alluvial and colluvial sediment storage in the Geul River catchment (The Netherlands)—combining field and modelling data to construct a Late Holocene sediment budget. Geomorphology, 95, 487–503.
De Wit, M. J. M., & Behrendt, H. (1999). Nitrogen and phosphorus emissions from soil to surface water in the Rhine and Elbe basins. Water Science and Technology, 39, 109–116.
Dunjo, G., Pardini, G., & Gispert, M. (2004). The role of land use–land cover on runoff generation and sediment yield at a microplot scale, in a small Mediterranean catchment. Journal of Arid Environments, 57, 99–116.
Favis-Mortlock, D., & Boardman, J. (1995). Nonlinear responses of soil erosion to climate change: A modelling study on the UK South Downs. Catena, 25, 365–387.
Foster, G. R., Mc Cool, D. K., Renard, K. G., & Moldenhauer, W. C. (1991). Conversion of the universal soil loss equation to SI metric units. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 36, 356–359.
Gobin, A., Kirkby, M., & Govers, G. (2004). Pan-European soil risk assessment. In R. Francaviglia (Ed.), Agricultural impacts on soil erosion and soil biodiversity: Developing indicators for policy analysis (pp. 1–15). Proceedings from an OECD Expert Meeting, Rome, Italy.
Houben, P., Hoffmann, T., Zimmermann, A., & Dikau, R. (2006). Land use and climatic impacts on the Rhine system (RheinLUCIFS): Quantifying sediment fluxes and human impact with available data. Catena, 66, 42–52.
IPCC (2007). Climate change 2007: The physical science basis. In Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ito, A. (2007). Simulated impacts of climate and land-cover change on soil erosion and implication for the carbon cycle, 1901 to 2100. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L09403. doi:10.1029/2007GL029342.
Jarvis, A., Reuter, H. I., Nelson, A., & Guevara, E. (2006). Hole-filled seamless SRTM data V3. International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia, U.S.A. Retrieved from http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org.
Jordan, G., van Rompaey, A., Szilassi, P., Csillag, G., Mannaerts, C., & Woldai, T. (2005). Historical land use changes and their impact on sediment fluxes in the Balaton basin (Hungary). Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment, 108, 119–133.
Martha, M. B., Gerard, G., Anne van, D., Fabien, Q., Dimitris, C., & Mark, R. (2008). The response of soil erosion and sediment export to land-use change in four areas of Europe: The importance of landscape pattern. Geomorphology, 98, 213–226.
McCool, D. K., Foster, G. R., Mutchler, C. K., & Meyer, L. D. (1987). Revised slope steepness factor for the universal soil loss equation. Transactions of the ASAE, 30, 1387–1396.
Nearing, M. A., Jetten, V., Baffaut, C., Cerdan, O., Couturier, A., Hernandez, M., et al. (2005). Modeling response of soil erosion and runoff to changes in precipitation and cover. Catena, 61, 131–154.
Neil Munro, R., Deckers, J., Haile, M., Grove, A. T., Poesen, J., & Nyssen, J. (2008). Soil landscapes, land cover change and erosion features of the Central Plateau region of Tigrai, Ethiopia: Photo-monitoring with an interval of 30 years. Catena, 75, 55–64.
Piccarreta, M., Capolongo, D., Boenzi, F., & Bentivenga, M. (2006). Implications of decadal changes in precipitation and land use policy to soil erosion in Basilicata, Italy. Catena, 65, 138–151.
Pruski, F. F., & Nearing, M. A. (2002). Runoff and soil loss responses to changes in precipitation: A computer simulation study. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 57, 7–16.
Renard, K. G., Foster, G. R., Weesies, G. A., McCool, D. K., & Yode, D. C. (1997). Predicting soil erosion by water: A guide to conservation planning with the revised universal soil loss equation. Agriculture handbook no. 703. Washington: US Department of Agriculture.
Richards, K., Brasington, J., & Hughes, F. (2002) Geomorphic dynamics of floodplains: Ecological implications and a potential modelling strategy. Freshwater Biology, 47, 559–579.
Singh, G., Babu, R., Narayan, P., Bhushan, L. S., & Abrol, I. P. (1992). Soil erosion rates in India. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 47, 97–99.
Siyuan, W., Jingshi, L., & Cunjian, Y. (2007). Temporal change in the landscape erosion pattern in the Yellow River Basin, China. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 21, 1077–1092.
Szilassi, P., Jordan, G., Rompaey, A., & Csillag, G. (2008). Impacts of historical land use changes on erosion and agricultural soil properties in the Kali Basin at Lake Balaton, Hungary. Catena, 68, 96–108.
Toy, J. T., Foster, G. R., & Renard, K. G. (2002). Soil erosion. Processes, prediction, measurement, and control. Hoboken: Wiley.
Van Rompaey, A., Bazzoffi, P., Jones, R. J. A., & Montanarella, L. (2005). Modeling sediment yields in Italian catchments. Geomorphology, 65, 157–169.
Verstraeten, G., & Poesen, J. (1999). The nature of small-scale flooding, muddy floods and retention pond sedimentation in central Belgium. Geomorphology, 29, 275–292.
Verstraeten, G., & Poesen, J. (2002). Regional scale variability in sediment and nutrient delivery from small agricultural watersheds. Journal of Environmental Quality, 31, 870–879.
Verstraeten, G., Van Oost, K., Van Rompaey, A., Poesen, J., & Govers, G. (2002). Evaluating an integrated approach to catchment management to reduce soil loss and sediment pollution through modelling. Soil Use and Management, 19, 386–394.
Yang, D., Kanae, S., Oki, T., Koike, T., & Musiake, K. (2003). Global potential soil erosion with reference to land use and climate changes. Hydrological Processes, 17, 2913–2928.
Wischmeier, W. H. (1959). A rainfall erosivity index for a universal soil loss equation. Soil Science Society of America Proceedings, 23, 246–249.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sharma, A., Tiwari, K.N. & Bhadoria, P.B.S. Effect of land use land cover change on soil erosion potential in an agricultural watershed. Environ Monit Assess 173, 789–801 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-010-1423-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-010-1423-6