Assessment of soil erosion in sub tropical ecosystem of Meghalaya, India using remote sensing, GIS and RUSLE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53550/Keywords:
Geo-spatial technique, Geo-statistics, Hydrology, Spatial assessment, Soil erosionAbstract
Erosion is one of the major threats to the soils that limits its productive capacity. Soil erosion in Jirang block, Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya under sub tropical eco-system was assessed using revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) in geographic information system (GIS). In the study, IRS P6 LISS IV data of the study area was used to prepare land use/land cover (LU/LC) map by visual interpretation technique and digital elevation model (DEM) was generated from Cartosat-1 data, which was further used to develop slope, contour, flow direction and flow accumulation maps. Thematic raster layers of RUSLE factors (R, K, LS, C and P) were computed and used to estimate average annual soil loss in GIS (ArcGIS 10.0). The results showed that about 30% area is subject to severe (20.1-40.0 t ha-1yr-1) to extremely severe (>80.0 t ha-1yr-1). Based on the severity of soil erosion in the block, Umkadhar, Mokirson, Mauling and Dagiya Parbat villages have been categorized under high priority zone with severe (20.1-40.0 t ha-1yr-1) to extremely severe (>80.0 t ha-1yr-1). The soil erosion was found to be higher near to the 1st and 2nd order streams where soil conservation measures are imminent. The study demonstrated that use of geospatial technologies in combination with RUSLE is a comprehensive approach for spatial assessment of soil erosion for better resource planning.
References
Anon. 1992. Agro-climatic planning for agriculture development in Meghalaya. Working group, Zonal Planning Team, Eastern Himalayan Region, AAU, Jorhat.
Arnold, J.G., Srinivasan, R., Muttiah, R.S. and Williams, J.R. 1998. Large area hydrologic modeling and assessment part I: model development. J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 34(1):73-89.
Bai, Z.G., Dent, D.L., Olsson, L. and Schaepman, M.E. 2008. Proxy global assessment of land degradation. Soil Use Manage., 24:223-234.
Challa, O., Kurothe, R.S. and Gajbhiye, K.S. 2001. Soil Erosion in Maharashtra. NBSS Publ. No. 82. NBSS&LUP (ICAR), Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. 51p.
Dennis, M.F. and Rorke, M.F. 1999. The relationship of soil loss by interill erosion to slope gradient. Catena., 38: 211-222.
Desmet, P.J. and Govers, G. 1996. A GIS-procedure for the automated calculation of the USLE LS-factor on topographically complex landscape units. J. Soil Water Cons., 51: 427-433.
Dickinson, A. and Collins, R. 1998. Predicting erosion and sediment yield at the catchment scale, soil erosion at multiple scales. CAB International, UK, pp. 317-342.
Dutta, D., Bandopadhyay, S., Baruah, U., Sarkar, Dipak, Singh, S.K., Maji, A.K. and Dhyani, B.L. 2014. Soil Erosion in Meghalaya, NBSS Publ. No. 160, NBSS&LUP (ICAR), Nagpur, India. 29 p.
ESRI. 2010. Geostatistical analyst tutorial, ArcGIS (ver. 10). Environmental System Research Institute (ESRI), Redlands, USA.
Flanagan, D.C. and Nearing, M.A. 1995. USDA water erosion prediction project: hillslope profile and watershed model documentation. NSERL Report No. 10. USDA-ARS National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1194.
Foster, G.R. and Wischmeier, W.H. 1974. Evaluating irregular slopes for soil loss prediction. Trans. ASAE. 17(1): 305-309.
Goswami, P.C. 1968. Shifting cultivation and its control in the Garo hills. Assam Soil Conservation Department, Assam.
Griffin, M.L., Beasley, D.B., Fletcher, J.J. and Foster, G.R. 1988. Estimating soil loss on topographically non-uniform field and farm units. J. Soil Water Conserv., 43(4): 326-331.
Handbook of Agriculture. 2009. Sixth (Revised) Edition, Directorate of Information and Publications of Agriculture, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi-12.
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). 1983. Shifting cultivation north east India. Publication unit, ICAR, New Delhi. 68 p.
Jain, M.K. and Kothyari, U.C. 2000. Estimation of soil erosion and sediment yield using GIS. Hydrolog. Sci. J., 45(5): 771-786.
Jain, S.K., Kumar, S. and Varghese, J. 2001. Estimation of Soil Erosion for a Himalayan watershed using GIS technique. Water Resour. Manag., 15: 41-54.
Jeeva, S.R.D.N., Laloo, R.C. and Mishra, B.P. 2006. Traditional agricultural practices in Meghalaya, North East India. Indian J. Tradit. Know., 5(1): 7-18.
Jena, R.K., Duraisami, V.P., Sivasamy, R., Shanmugasundaram, R., Krishnan, R., Padua, S., Bandyopadhyay, S., Ramachandran, S., Ray, P., Deb Roy, P., Singh, S.K. and Ray, S.K. 2016.
Characterization and Classification of Soils of Jirang block in Meghalaya Plateau. Agropedology, 26(1): 47-57.
Jha, M.K. and Paudel, R.C. 2010. Erosion Predictions by Empirical Models in a Mountainous Watershed in Nepal. J. Spat. Hydrol., 10(1): 89-102.
Kinnell, P.I.A. 2000. AGNPS–UM: applying the USLE–M within the agricultural nonpoint source pollution model. Environ. Model. Softw., 15: 331-341.
Kirkby, M.J. and Morgan, R.P.C. 1980. Soil Erosion. A Wiley- Interscience Publication, Great Britain, 45 p.
Lal, R. 1994. Soil erosion by wind and water: problems and
prospects. In: Lal, R. (ed.). Soil Erosion Research Methods (Second edition). Soil and Water Conservation Society, St. Lucie Press, Delray Beach, FL.
Lal, R. 2001. Soil degradation by Erosion. Land Degrad. Dev., 12: 519- 539.
Maji, A.K., Reddy, G.P.O. and Sarkar, D. 2010. Degraded and wastelands of India: Status and spatial distribution. Directorate of Information and Publications of Agriculture, ICAR, Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan I, Pusa, New Delhi, 158 p.
McCool, D.K., Foster, G.R., Mutchler, C.K. and Meyer, L.D. 1987. Revised slope steepness factor for the universal soil loss equation. Trans. of ASAE., 30(5): 1387-1396.
McCool, D.K., Foster, G.R., Mutchler, C.K. and Meyer, L.D. 1989. Revised slope length factor for the universal soil loss equation. Trans. of ASAE., 32(5): 1571-1576.
Mitasova, H. and Mitas, L. 1999. Modeling soil detachment with RUSLE 3D using GIS. Geographic Modeling Systems Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, http://Skagit.meas.ncsu.edu/-helena/gmslab/erosion/usle.html.
Mitasova, H., Hofierka, J., Zlocha, M. and Iverson, R. 1996. Modeling topographic potential for erosion and deposition using GIS. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Syst., 10(5): 629-641.
oore, I. and Burch, G. 1986a. Physical basis of the length-slope factor in the universal soil loss equation. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 50: 1294-1298.
Moore, I. and Burch, G. 1986b. Modeling erosion and deposition topographic effects. Trans. ASAE., 29(5):1624-1630.
Moore, I. and Wilson, J.P. 1992. Length slope factor for the revised universal soil loss equation: simplified method of solution. J. Soil Water Conserv., 47(4): 423-428.
Morgan, R.P.C., Quinton, J.N., Smith, R.E., Govers, G., Poesen, J.W.A., Auerswald, K., Chisci, G., Torri, D. and Styczen, M.E. 1998. The European Soil Erosion Model (EUROSEM): a dynamic approach for predicting sediment transport from fields and small catchments. Earth Surf. Proc. Land., 23: 527-544.
Narain, P., Khybri, M L., Tomar, H.P.S. and Sindhwal, N.S. 1994. Estimation of runoff, soil loss and USLE parameters for Doon valley. Indian J. Soil. Cons., 22(3): 129-132.
National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC). 2006. Manual of National Land Use Land Cover Mapping Using Multi-Temporal Satellite Data. Department of Space, Hyderabad.
Oldeman, L.R., Hakkeling, R.T.A. and Sombroek, W.G. 1991. World Map of the Status of Human-Induced Soil Degradation: An Explanatory Note. ISRIC (International Soil Reference and Information Centre) Wegeningen, The Netherlands.
Oldeman, L.R. 1994. The global extent of soil degradation. In: D.J. Greenland and I. szabolcs (eds). Soil resilience and sustainable land use, Wallingford, UK: CAB.
Pandey, A., Chowdary, V.M. and Mal, B.C. 2007. Identification of critical erosion prone areas in the small agriculture watershed using USLE, GIS and remote sensing. Water Resour. Manag., 21(4): 729-746.
Piper, C.S. 1966. Soil and Plant Analysis. University of Adelaide, Australia.
Rao, Y.P. 1981. Evaluation of cropping management factor in
universal soil equation under natural rainfall condition of Kharagpur, India. In: Proc. of Southeast Asian regional symposium on problems of soil erosion and sedimentation. Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, pp. 241-254.
Reddy, G.P.O., Maji, A.K., Chary, G.R., Srinivas, C.V., Tiwary P. and Gajbhiye, K.S. 2004. GIS and remote sensing applications in prioritization of river sub basins using morphometric and USLE parameters - A case study. Asian J. Geoinform., 4: 35-49.
Reddy, G.P.O., Kurothe, R.S., Sena, D.R., Harindranath, C.S., Niranjana, K.V., Naidu, L.G.K., Singh, S.K., Sarkar, D., Mishra, P.K. and Sharda, V.N. 2016. Assessment of soil erosion in tropical ecosystem of Goa, India using Universal Soil Loss Equation, geostatistics and GIS. Indian J. Soil Cons., 44(1): 1-7.
Reddy, G.P.O., Sarkar, D., Prasad, J. and Ramamurthy, V. 2013. Geospatial modeling in assessment of biophysical resources for sustainable land resource management. Tropical Ecol., 54: 227-238.
Renard, K.G., Foster, G.R., Weesies, G.A. and Porter, J.P. 1991. RUSLE- Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation. J. Soil Water Conserv., 46(1): 30-33.
Renard, K.G., Foster, G.R., Weesies, G.A., McCool, D.K. and Yoder, D.C. 1997. Predicting Soil Erosion by Water: A Guide to Conservation Planning with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). Agriculture Handbook No. 703, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., USA, 384 p. Roose, E.J. 1977. Application of the universal soil loss equation of Wischmeier and Smith in West Africa. In: Soil conservation and management in the humid tropics. Greenland, D.J. and Lal, R. London (eds). Wiley, pp177-187.
Sachchidananda. 1989. Shifting cultivation in India. Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, 256 p.
Sahoo, A.K., Sarkar, D., Sah, K.D., Maji, A.K. and Dhyani, B.L. 2005. Soil erosion of Bihar. NBSS Publ. 125, NBSS&LUP (ICAR), Nagpur, 49 p.
Simms, A.D., Woodroffe, C.D. and Jones, B.G. 2003. Application of RUSLE for Erosion Management in a Coastal Catchment, Southern NSW. In: Proc. of MODSIM 2003: International Congress on Modelling and Simulation- 2, Integrative Modelling of Biophysical, Social and Economic Systems for Resource Management Solutions. Townsville, Queensland, pp 678-683.
Singh, G., Ram Babu and Chandra, S. 1981. Soil loss prediction research in India. Tech. Bull. T-12/D-9, CSWCRTI, Dehradun, India.
Singh, S. and Dubey, A. 2002. Gully erosion and Management methods and Application (A Field Manual). New Academic Publishers, 1-2.
Sinha, D. and Joshi, V.U. 2012. Application of Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) to recently reclaimed Badlands along the Adula and Mahalungi Rivers, Pravara Basin, Maharashtra. J. Geol. Soc. Ind., 80: 341-350.
Tideman, E.M. 1996. Watershed Management-Guidelines for Indian Conditions. Omega Scientific Publishers, New Delhi, pp 1-6.
Tirkey, A.S., Pandey, A.C. and Nathawat, M.S. 2013. Use of Satellite Data, GIS and RUSLE for Estimation of Average Annual Soil Loss in Daltonganj Watershed of Jharkhand (India). J. Remote Sens. Technol., 1(1): 20-30.
USDA-Soil Conservation Services (USDA-SCS). 1972. Hydrology in SCS National Engineering Handbook. Science 4, US Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
Wischmeier, W.H. 1959. A rainfall erosion index for a universal soilloss equation. Proc. Soil Sci. Soc. Am., 23: 246-249.
Wischmeier, W.H. and Smith, D.D. 1978. Predicting Rainfall Erosion losses. Agriculture Handbook No. 537, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
