Abstract: Soil erosion is a common phenomenon in many parts of Ethiopian and it remains difficult to quantify and measure the amount of soil erosion. GIS provides spatial information to identify erosion potential areas and useful tools to estimate the annual soil loss based on Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation. The aim of this research was to estimate the annual soil loss from the watershed and to map soil erosion factors for planning and implementation of sustainable soil conservation and management system in the watershed. RUSLE model was employed rainfall erosivity factor, soil erodibility factor, topography factor, vegetation cover factor, management factor. The mean annual soil loss estimated in watershed was 44.67 tones ha-1yr-1 from 569.35 ha. The results revealed that about 23.44% of the watershed area undergoes moderate (5-10 tones ha-1 yr-1) to very slight (>2 tones ha-1 yr-1) erosion classes, 22.54% high (10-50 tones ha-1 yr-1) erosion class, 38.8% from severe (50-100 tones ha-1 yr-1) to very severe (100-500 tones ha-1 yr-1) erosion classes, and 15.23% catastrophic (>500 tones ha-1 yr-1) erosion class. Based on the findings it is recommended that, high to catastrophic erosion risk area of the watershed requires various soil and water conservation measures that intercept runoff by decreasing the transport capacity of flow and improving soil infiltration in the steep slope and rehabilitating hillside slope areas with different indigenous and exotic tree species should be embarked upon by participating farmers from plan preparation to implementation. Soil erosion hot spot areas that were identified in the soil erosion map should be given a serious attention and priorities for implementing soil conservation activities before the areas reached to irreversible soil degradations.
Abstract: Soil erosion is a common phenomenon in many parts of Ethiopian and it remains difficult to quantify and measure the amount of soil erosion. GIS provides spatial information to identify erosion potential areas and useful tools to estimate the annual soil loss based on Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation. The aim of this research was to estimate the...Show More
