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Water Resour Manage (2011) 25:37153727
DOI 10.1007/s11269-011-9878-y
Received: 1 July 2010 /Accepted: 1 July 2011 /
Published online: 15 July 2011# Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) has been used in combination with remote sensing and GIS techniques to assess the spatial pattern and annual rate of soil erosion in the Munnar Forest Division in Western Ghats, Kerala, India. The RUSLE takes into account several factors such as rainfall, soil erodibility, slope length and steepness, land cover and erosion control practice for soil erosion prediction. Maximum soil loss of 109.31 t h1y1 and the areas with extreme erosion (erosion is higher than 50 t h1y1) are confined to 11.46% of the total area, while the area occupied by severe erosion (erosion rate between 25 and 50 t h1y1) is 27.53%. The high rate of annual soil erosion is associated with areas of high terrain alteration from the plantation activities and highly elevated hills/ plateau margins with steep side slopes. Such an output is highly useful in decision making context to avoid land acquisition in erosion risk areas, or, alternatively, to recommend soil conservation measures to reduce soil loss, if developmental activities are to be continued at high soil erosion risk areas.
Keywords RUSLE . Western Ghats . Soil erodibility . Slope length and steepness . Raster calculator
1 Introduction
Soil erosion is one of the most significant and widespread forms of soil degradation which has environmental and economic impacts, especially in agricultural areas. Economically, soil erosion affects the productivity of land and hence conservation strategies assume lead roles in the development programmes (Kim et al. 2005; Lim et al. 2005). India is one of the few countries to have estimated the loss of topsoil due to erosion (Narayana and Babu 1983; Pimentel and Kounang 1998; Kukal et al. 2007). An estimated 329 Mha, constituting about 53% of the total geographical area, suffers from the deleterious effect of soil erosion
V. Prasannakumar (*) : H. Vijith : N. Geetha : R. Shiny
Centre for Geoinformation Science and Technology, University of Kerala, Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India 695 581e-mail: [email protected]
Regional Scale Erosion Assessment of a Sub-tropical Highland Segment in the Western Ghats of Kerala, South India
V. Prasannakumar & H. Vijith...