Abstract
ABSTRACT Globally, soil degradation by water erosion has become one of the major environmental problems in tropical regions, especially under the severe environmental conditions of the Andes. This study aims to detail the soil risk to degradation by water erosion in a water producer basin located in the Tropical Colombian Andes (Combeima River basin), applying the RUSLE model, discussing how to minimize the erosion processes under its environmental conditions (steep slope, climatic variability, soil classes and properties diversity, and alternative land uses). RUSLE was applied with the support of GIS to estimate current and potential risk to soil erosion in the basin, allowing the identification of areas more prone to degradation. It was found that currently, 50.5% of the basin’s area presents, on average, annual soil losses greater than 25 Mg ha-1 yr-1, meaning a very high risk to water erosion, with 30.4% showing a severe risk (> 100 Mg ha-1 yr-1). It was possible to conclude that the current land uses and soil management systems have not been effective in mitigating soil erosion, mainly when situated in steep topography. Therefore, it is necessary sustainable planning for the conservation of soil, water, organic carbon, plant nutrients, and other elements (not-nutrients) in this tropical Andes region.
Highlights
Accelerated soil erosion has been recognized as a critical environmental problem related to land use and climatic changes
Rainfall erosivity is the active factor in generating water erosion (Mello et al, 2016) and in Combeima River basin (CRB), the R-factor ranged from 1,777.33 to 2,443.71 MJ mm ha-1 h-1 yr-1, with an average value of 2,110.52 MJ mm ha-1 h-1 yr-1
The distribution of the R-factor in CRB shows that it decreases as the altitude changes from the mountain areas to the lowland areas (Figure 3a)
Summary
Accelerated soil erosion has been recognized as a critical environmental problem related to land use and climatic changes. Water erosion has caused physical land degradation because it leads to a reduction in porosity of the surface soil layer, constraining the soil water infiltration capacity, and resulting in increased surface runoff and sediment transport This threats the sustainable development goals (SDG) preconized by United Nations (UN) (Keesstra et al, 2018) as water erosion causes poverty, hunger, water pollution, reduction on reservoirs’ capacity, with losses on food production and soil and plant nutrients, and the productive capacity of the land. It can trigger other impacts, such as sedimentation, flooding, damage to infrastructure, and landslides (Mello et al, 2020). CC is capable of recovering organic matter, and the soil’s biological activity and its natural fertility
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