Abstract
Soil erosion is more sensitive in the highlands of Ethiopia. The purpose of this study is evaluating erosion risk potential using RUSLE model with GIS and remote sensing to identify erosion potential areas for soil and water resources conservation plan and to prepare soil loss risk map. Collected data were processed and analyzed using Arc GIS10.2 version. Total average annual soil loss from the 2,120.33ha was estimated at 7161.06tons. The lower soil loss rate was 2.5t/ha/yr on plantation and natural forest, the maximum value was 100.62tons/ha/yr in steep slope cultivated land and average soil loss was 50.31 tons/ha/yr. About 6.35% of the area is under extremely very severe soil erosion rate. Level soil bund, graded soil, stone or stone faced soil bund, fanyajju, cutoff- drain in the above part of the catchment, waterway along the slope, trenches on grazing land, check dam SWC measures at Quala got, integrated physical with biological measures like tree Lucerne, Vetiver grass are the recommended SWC measures. This approach can be applied in other basin or watershed for assessment of erosion risk potential using GIS and RS, and this can be used as a preliminary watershed planning tool for decision makers in Ethiopia like Woreda Agriculture and Natural Resources management Office.
Highlights
Soil erosion by water has been the most serious environmental problem in Ethiopia since the 1970s [1]
The economic implication of soil erosion is more serious in the Northwestern highlands of Ethiopia because of its uneven topographical features and lack of capacity to cope with it to replace lost nutrients [3, 4] probably due to high population pressure which leads to intensified use of already stressed resources and cultivation of marginal and fragile lands
Comparison to other studies elsewhere in Ethiopia, the soil erosion risk map and the erosion severity classes generated using RUSLE model integrated with the Arc
Summary
Soil erosion by water has been the most serious environmental problem in Ethiopia since the 1970s [1]. In Amhara region, the annual rate of soil loss estimated due to water erosion was about 119 million t/yr, which amounts to 70% of the total soil loss in the country as a whole [5]. Due to this reason 29% of the total area of the region experiences high erosion rates (51 t/ha/yr); 31% experiences moderate erosion rates (16 t/ha/yr); 10% experiences very high erosion rates (>200 t/ha/yr); and the remaining 30% experiences low erosion rates (
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