Spatial estimation of soil erosion risk using RUSLE/GIS techniques and practices conservation suggested for reducing soi
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Spatial estimation of soil erosion risk using RUSLE/GIS techniques and practices conservation suggested for reducing soil erosion in Wadi Mina watershed (northwest, Algeria) Ahmed Benchettouh 1 & Lakhdar Kouri 2,3 & Sihem Jebari 4
Received: 24 December 2015 / Accepted: 26 January 2017 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2017
Abstract The Wadi Mina Watershed, western area of Algeria is characterized by rare and irregular rains and a fragile and weak vegetable cover. The sediments resulting from erosion are transported and contributed to silting dam Sidi Mhamed Benaouda. The combination of the thematical maps of the various erosive factors according to the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) in SIG by ArcGIS 10.2 software provided a reliable forecast of the annual rates of soil loss by delimiting the areas prone to erosive risk in the catchment above mentioned. The estimated potential average annual soil loss is 11.2 t/ha/yr., and the potential erosion rates from recognized erosion classes ranged from 0.0 to plus 100 t/ha/yr. About 50% of the catchment area was predicted to have very low to low erosion risk, with soil loss between 0 and 7.4 t/ha/yr. Erosion risk is moderate over 13.9% of the catchment, where calculated soil loss is between 7.4 and 12 t/ha/yr. Erosion risk is high to dangerous over 36.1% of the catchment, where calculated soil loss is more than 12 t/ha/ yr. According to this study, it appeared clearly that we must intervene quickly by using reliable and effective conservation techniques.
* Ahmed Benchettouh [email protected]
1
Laboratory Biodiversity and Conservation of Water and the Soils, University Abdelhamid Ibn Badis, Mostaganem, 27000 Mostaganem, Algeria
2
Department of Agronomic Sciences, University Abdelhamid Ibn Badis, Mostaganem, 27000 Mostaganem, Algeria
3
Laboratory Biodiversity and Conservation of Water and the Soils, University Abdelhamid Ibn Badis, Mostaganem, 27000 Mostaganem, Algeria
4
National Research Institute for Rural Engineering, Water, and Forestry, Box 10, Ariana, 2080 Tunis, Tunisia
Keywords Wadi mina . Algeria . Dam Sidi Mhamed Benaouda . RUSLE . GIS . Erosion
Introduction The erosion results from the degradation of the surface layers of the pedological cover and the displacement of its materials component (Antoni et al. 2006). It results from the detachment, under the effect of the kinetic energy of the drops of rain and the transport of particles of soil of their initial site by water, degrading the quality of water and the fertility of the soil and reducing the capacity of the dams (Toumi 2013). Any loss of soil higher than 1 t/ha/yr. is regarded as irreversible in a lapse of time between 50 and 100 years (Kouli et al. 2009). When the amount of the loss in soil is examined throughout the world, it is seen that many countries suffered from the erosion by water of the soil. Approximately 90% of the soil cultivated in the USA knows the phenomenon of the soil losses. This loss is estimated between 5 and 12 t/ha/yr. (Pimentel et al. 1995). The
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