Land use and land cover changes (LULCC), a key to understand soil erosion intensities in the Maritsa Basin

Abstract

Soil erosion is a major environmental and economic concern affecting all continents around the world. Soil loss facilitates land degradation, threatening both agricultural and natural environments in continental Europe. The overall objective of the present study is to reveal temporal changes of erosion risk in the Maritsa Basin, and also assess the temporal effects of land use and land cover changes (LULCC) on the gross erosion rate. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) was utilized to monitor the distribution of the erosion risk zones and soil loss in the basin. The variables were either directly derived from the satellite imagery or computed using established equations or previous studies. The dynamic parameters were categorized into two-time frames as 1990 and 2015. The results indicate that the annual average erosion rate decreased from 0.895 to 0.828 t ha-1 year-1. This reduction is within the range of modeling error, potentially originated from input data uncertainties. The most extensive changes in the gross soil loss were found in both agricultural and artificial areas, which emphasize the significance of these two classes in soil erosion models. The research summarized here enhances understanding the impacts of land use and land cover (LULC) classes on erosion intensities.