Review, impact of land use/cover change on soil erosion in the Lake Tana Basin, Upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia
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REVIEW ARTICLE
Review, impact of land use/cover change on soil erosion in the Lake Tana Basin, Upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia Alemsha Bogale1 Received: 29 March 2020 / Accepted: 28 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Lake Tana Basin is located in upper Blue Nile Basin which is comprises a total area of 15,096 km2 of which 3063 km2 is covered by the Lake which is the source of Blue Nile river. Lake Tana Basin and Blue Nile River provide various benefits also for downstream countries. The basin is highly degraded by different natural and manmade problems and it influence both Ethiopia and downstream countries. The main cause of basin degradation is inappropriate LULC. Huge area of cultivated land using without suitable management is the major basin problem. It is due to insure food security coming from unprecedented population growth rate. Forested land has encouraged the infiltration capacity and permeability of the land. It helps to increase the recharge capacity contribute to base flow whereas it is vice versa for cultivated land which is quick overland flow and significant soil erosion have observed. Besides, the soil erosion from agricultural land is the main source of nutrient enters to the lake which is the cause for eutrophication. To combat such problems both up and downstream countries should discuss together and design and implement appropriate basin management strategies to sustain the biodiversity and hydrological system of the basin. Keywords Lake Tana · LULC · Soil erosion · Lake Tana Basin
Introduction Ethiopia, mostly dominated by mountainoustopography is the source of water for east Africa which is from rainfallrunoff process (Derib et al. 2009). Understanding rainfallrunoff process is essential to control problems and improve productivity of the watershed. Erosion is the major problems in the basin and it is high in early period of the wet season, and sediment concentration is frequently recorded before peaks of discharge is observed in a given rainfall season (Steenhuis et al. 2009). In the Lake Tana Basin, effective utilization of the land and water resource is needed to improve the livelihood of the basin. Both natural and manmade activities are significantly affected existed natural resources of the basin (Setegn et al. 2009). Hydrological process research in the watershed is a vital to identify and provide solutions to save the critical degradation of soil and water resources in the * Alemsha Bogale [email protected] 1
Department of Water Technology, Bahir Dar Polytechnic College, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
catchment (Easton et al. 2010; Setegn et al. 2008). The lack of resources used to researching problems on the watershed are challenging to overcome significantly the research and development in the area (Setegn et al. 2009). To solve the existing soil erosion problems there is a need to identify the most erosion sensitive areas in the region, so that effective conservation measures can be taken.
Area description Lake Tana is largest lake in Ethiopia and the third largest in Nile Bas
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