Assessment of soil erosion in the Irga watershed on the eastern edge of the Chota Nagpur Plateau, India

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Human activities to improve the quality of life have accelerated the natural rate of soil erosion. In turn, these natural disasters have taken a great impact on humans. Human activities, particularly the conversion of vegetated land into agricultural land and built-up area, stand out as primary contributors to soil erosion. The present study investigated the risk of soil erosion in the Irga watershed located on the eastern fringe of the Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand, India, which is dominated by sandy loam and sandy clay loam soil with low soil organic carbon (SOC) content. The study used the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and Geographical Information System (GIS) technique to determine the rate of soil erosion. The five parameters (rainfall-runoff erosivity (R) factor, soil erodibility (K) factor, slope length and steepness (LS) factor, cover-management (C) factor, and support practice (P) factor) of the RUSLE were applied to present a more accurate distribution characteristic of soil erosion in the Irga watershed. The result shows that the R factor is positively correlated with rainfall and follows the same distribution pattern as the rainfall. The K factor values in the northern part of the study area are relatively low, while they are relatively high in the southern part. The mean value of the LS factor is 2.74, which is low due to the flat terrain of the Irga watershed. There is a negative linear correlation between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the C factor, and the high values of the C factor are observed in places with low NDVI. The mean value of the P factor is 0.210, with a range from 0.000 to 1.000. After calculating all parameters, we obtained the average soil erosion rate of 1.43 t/(hm2•a), with the highest rate reaching as high as 32.71 t/(hm2•a). Therefore, the study area faces a low risk of soil erosion. However, preventative measures are essential to avoid future damage to productive and constructive activities caused by soil erosion. This study also identifies the spatial distribution of soil erosion rate, which will help policy-makers to implement targeted soil erosion control measures.