Abstract
Study regionMahanadi River Basin in India Study focusThis study explores the effect of climate change and human-induced farming and construction activities on soil erosion in a rainfed basin during two time periods viz. 1981–2000 and 2001–2019. This study assesses erosion using the Geographic Information System integrated Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (GIS-integrated RUSLE) model. Three different analyses are designed to assess the effect i) combined effect of change in all the RUSLE factors over these two time periods, ii) effect of only land use/cover change (LULC), and iii) only rainfall change impact on erosion rate. A modified sediment delivery ratio (SDR) has been proposed and the model performances are validated using the observed Sediment Yield data. New hydrological insights for the regionThe results indicate an overall decrease in the erosion rate as a combined effect of change in all the factors, but at the same time, an increase in the spatial extent of the areas affected by soil erosion is noticed. The mean soil erosion rate varies between 37.02 tons ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ in 1981–2000 and 31.89 tons ha⁻¹yr⁻¹ in 2001–2019, with a 40% decrease in the maximum erosion rate, while the total and mean erosion rates are both down 13.85% compared to 1981–2000. The analysis suggested overall effect of the change in rainfall is more profound on erosion than LULC change.
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