Impact Assessment of Alternate Land Cover and Management Practices on Soil Erosion: A Case Study

Abstract

Climate, soil, vegetation, topography, and man are the factors that affect soil erosion, and out of these vegetation and soil to some extent are the only factors which man can control. Fertile soil by carrying erosion fills dam reservoir and reduces dam's economical life, hence economy of country get debilitated big amount. To specify hazard and damage of soil erosion is very important for this reason. Among many environmental hazards, checking land degradation is of utmost importance as it has direct bearing on decline in productivity on arable and non-arable lands. To prevent the erosion and rapid siltation, management of water, soil cover, and vegetation resources on watershed is must. In the present study, expected soil loss from Bina river watershed of Betwa river basin has been estimated using USLE model in GIS platform. The total soil about 4% of the total geographical area of the Bina watershed was found under very severe erosion category having erosion rate more than 120 t/ha/year, whereas the average soil erosion for the Bina basin was found to be 8.7 t/ha/year. Impact of alternate land cover management practices have been analyzed by hypothetically assigning the alternate land use practices and changing the values of controlling factors of USLE model accordingly. The best management practices which increase the food production and also control the soil erosion have been suggested.