Abstract
In this work, we apply close-range photogrammetry with unmanned aircraft systems to quantify erosion with millimetric spatial resolution in agricultural plots. We evaluate the proposed methodology against the traditional runoff method on active plots. A database of digital elevation models was constructed with a ground sampling distance of 7 mm/pixel and maximum root-mean-square total error of 4.8 mm, which allowed the follow-up of soil erosion dynamics within the runoff plots for a period of three months. Good agreement of the photogrammetric estimations with respect to field measurements was observed, whereas it provides a more detailed spatial information that can be used for precise soil loss dynamic studies.
Highlights
S OIL erosion is one of the main forms of land degradation and according to recent estimations about 25% of the worldwide arable land is degraded [1]
Soil erosion is the accelerated loss of the arable layer due to the transportation of the soil particles to other sites [2] and it is a product of a combination of the erosive potential of the rainfall, vegetation cover, topography, and soil texture; it is highly related to crop productivity, food security [3], [4], and to the generation of floods in lowlands [5], [6]
We show how land surface dynamics can be evaluated from a digital elevation model (DEM) database over short periods of time, in combination with the DEMs of difference (DoD) technique, proper filtering of the models and removal of vegetation coverage through an automated workflow based on the R programming language
Summary
S OIL erosion is one of the main forms of land degradation and according to recent estimations about 25% of the worldwide arable land is degraded [1]. Soil erosion is the accelerated loss of the arable layer due to the transportation of the soil particles to other sites [2] and it is a product of a combination of the erosive potential of the rainfall, vegetation cover, topography, and soil texture; it is highly related to crop productivity, food security [3], [4], and to the generation of floods in lowlands [5], [6]. Since soil erosion is highly variable in time and space, its accurate estimation becomes a challenge [2]. Many methods have been developed to quantify soil erosion; most of them are conducted at small scale and further extrapolated to a larger scale.
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