Abstract
Near real-time estimation of soil loss from river catchments is crucial for minimizing environmental degradation of complex river basins. The Chenab river is one of the most complex river basins of the world and is facing severe soil loss due to extreme hydrometeorological conditions, unpredictable hydrologic response, and complex orography. Resultantly, huge soil erosion and sediment yield (SY) not only cause irreversible environmental degradation in the Chenab river catchment but also deteriorate the downstream water resources. In this study, potential soil erosion (PSE) is estimated from the transboundary Chenab river catchment using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), coupled with remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS). Land Use of the European Space Agency (ESA), Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS) data, and world soil map of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)/The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization were incorporated into the study. The SY was estimated on monthly, quarterly, seasonal, and annual time-scales using sediment delivery ratio (SDR) estimated through the area, slope, and curve number (CN)-based approaches. The 30-year average PSE from the Chenab river catchment was estimated as 177.8, 61.5, 310.3, 39.5, 26.9, 47.1, and 99.1 tons/ha for annual, rabi, kharif, fall, winter, spring, and summer time scales, respectively. The 30-year average annual SY from the Chenab river catchment was estimated as 4.086, 6.163, and 7.502 million tons based on area, slope, and CN approaches. The time series trends analysis of SY indicated an increase of 0.0895, 0.1387, and 0.1698 million tons per year for area, slope, and CN-based approaches, respectively. It is recommended that the areas, except for slight erosion intensity, should be focused on framing strategies for control and mitigation of soil erosion in the Chenab river catchment.
Highlights
Soil is a precious natural resource [1], plays a key role in the functioning ecosystem [2,3], and provides valuable goods and services [4,5] essential for human security [6,7]
Keeping in view all the soil erosion issues of the transboundary river catchments, the present study aims to estimate the spatially distributed potential soil erosion (PSE) of the transboundary Chenab river catchment using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model integrated with remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS)
The following conclusions have been derived from a 30-year study of soil erosion from the Chenab river catchment using RUSLE and sediment delivery ratio (SDR) approaches;
Summary
Soil is a precious natural resource [1], plays a key role in the functioning ecosystem [2,3], and provides valuable goods and services [4,5] essential for human security [6,7]. Soil erosion is considered as one of the significant threats to the ecosystem [13,14,15], as it causes soil erosion from upper catchments and deposition in rivers and lakes through the geologic ages worldwide [16,17], and carries nutrients, pesticides, chemicals, etc., and cause groundwater contamination [18,19,20]. It has been estimated that about 56% of global soil is being degraded by light to severe forms of soil erosion caused has by water [21]. Estimation of soil erosion by water from river catchment is in dire need [27], so that proper soil erosion mitigation options can be focused [28] Accelerated forms of soil erosion by water become a global problem [22,23], that cause rivers’ catchment problems [24,25] and act as barriers to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals [26].
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