An assessment of rainfall-induced land degradation condition using Erosivity Density (ED) and heatmap method for Urmodi
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
An assessment of rainfall‑induced land degradation condition using Erosivity Density (ED) and heatmap method for Urmodi River watershed of Maharashtra, India Wasim A. Bagwan1 Received: 12 April 2020 / Revised: 21 May 2020 / Accepted: 22 May 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Soil erosion caused by rainfall is a serious issue in hilly terrain areas. Rainfall creates erosivity impact on soil; this force can be calculated using R-factor of Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). For assessment of rainfall impact at Urmodi River watershed (Maharashtra, India), data of six weather stations were used of 20 years, from 1991–2013. Using the same data rainfall pattern map, R-factor map was plotted. The ratio of R-factor of RUSLE to annual rainfall gives us the erosivity density (ED). All maps are prepared using Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) method of interpolation. Along with the maps, the precipitation pattern at each weather station was plotted using heatmap. The average rainfall value in the watershed was found to be 1247.13 mm/year. The mean R-factor at Urmodi River watershed was 531.69 MJ mm ha−1 h−1 year−1. Whereas, mean ED value at whole catchment level shows 0.42 MJ ha−1 h−1. At the upper catchment of the study area, there located ‘Kaas Plateau’ which is a world heritage site. As the region is an eco-sensitive area, this study makes possible to assess the impact of rainfall and predict soil loss. This information is important because it allows to adapt the soil protection measures. Keywords Erosivity density(ED) · Geographical information system (GIS) · Heatmap · Rainfall erosivity · Soil erosion risk
1 Introduction Soil loss is one of the main environmental concerns worldwide and mostly affecting tropical and subtropical regions. Rainfall erosivity is a parameter of Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) studied at basin scale to country scale is essential to study the spatial extent of erosive potential of rain (de Mello et al. 2015). Rainfall erosivity is one of the key factors in water led soil erosion process, especially on barren land surface or the area with sparse vegetation density. Rainfall detaches soil particles from the ground by the striking effect of raindrop. To evaluate the rainfall erosivity, the amount of precipitation, its distribution, its type, etc. are important sub factors (Mikoš et al. 2006). Changes in rainfall distribution both in spatial and temporal aspects Communicated by M. V. Alves Martins * Wasim A. Bagwan [email protected] 1
Department of Environmental Science, School of Earth Sciences, Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Solapur University, Solapur 413255, India
and intensification of rainfall events may increase the land degradation vulnerability (Olsson et al. 2019). Precipitation is one of the key drivers of soil erosion and changing climate could lead to changes in its pattern; in this way, soil conservation is needed for these changing natural phenomena (Sadeghi and Hazbavi 2015). Rain erosivity is defined as the potent
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