Assessment of the soil loss-prone zones using the USLE model in northeastern Iran
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ARTICLE
Assessment of the soil loss‑prone zones using the USLE model in northeastern Iran Majid Ebrahimi1 · Hamid Nejadsoleymani2 · Ali Sadeghi3 · Mohammad Reza Mansouri Daneshvar4 Received: 22 September 2019 / Revised: 26 August 2020 / Accepted: 3 September 2020 © The International Society of Paddy and Water Environment Engineering 2020
Abstract This research attempted to evaluate the soil loss-prone zones and affecting key factors in a suburb agricultural area in the western Mashhad city, northeastern Iran, using the universal soil loss equation model. All erosion factors and components were produced in GIS grid-based modeling. Therefore, the required data, such as topography, climate, and soil characteristics, were collected from global databases. The estimated annual soil loss values were classified into five classes from slight soil losses (0–3 t ha−1 year−1) at the plain lowland in the northern region to severe soil losses (25–55 t ha−1 year−1) at the hillsides and terraces in the middle part of the study area. The results revealed that about 9.36% of the study area (6743 km 2) is under critical erosion-prone zones of high and severe soil losses (over 15 t ha−1 year−1). Ultimately, the relationships between soil loss-prone zones and soil taxonomy order/sub-orders were investigated to prevalence the results in the other alike geo-climatic status. Correlation analysis conveniently confirmed a very strong, significant, and direct relationship (R equal to 0.997) between high/severe soil losses and xerolls in the study area at the 95% confidence level. In the study area, the most soil loss and sedimentation were predicted for xerolls soil sub-order (mollisols) with 5.5 t ha−1 year−1 and 14.69 million t year−1 (over 60% of total sedimentations). Keywords Universal soil loss equation (USLE) · Geographical information system (GIS) · Erosion model · Soil losses · Soil taxonomy · Environmental planning
Introduction Soil loss is a serious environmental problem, which threatens the sustainability and productivity of agricultural areas (Baskan et al. 2010). Erosion causes damage to soils, water quality, and sediment transportation, causing many remote hazards such as land creep and mudflow. Assessment of erosion and soil losses is a planning procedure to combat these threats (Pandey et al. 2007). * Mohammad Reza Mansouri Daneshvar [email protected] http://www.researcherid.com/rid/G-2881-2012 1
Department of Physical Geography, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran
2
Department of Physical Geography, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
3
Department of Humanities and Social Science, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran
4
Department of Geography and Natural Hazards, Research Institute of Shakhes Pajouh, Isfahan, Iran
Several soil erosion models exist with varying degrees of complexity. In this regard, many models for soil erosion loss estimation have been developed (e.g., Nearing et al. 1989; Adinarayana et al. 1999; Shen et al. 2003), however, for limited studies without suffici
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