Abstract
The Siwalik Hills is one of the most fragile and vulnerable ecosystems in the Nepalese Himalaya where soil erosion and land degradation issues are fundamental. There is very limited knowledge on soil erosion processes and rates in this region in comparison to other regions of the Himalaya. The aims of the present paper are to document, measure and interpret key soil erosion processes and provide an estimate of erosion rates in the Khajuri Stream catchment located in the eastern Siwalik Hills. We used erosion pins to monitor sheet erosion, gully erosion, landslides and stream bank erosion over the period from 2002 to 2004. Sheet erosion from forest and shrubs generally varied from 0.8–1.2 mm·yr−1 with a mean erosion rate of ~16 t·ha−1·yr−1. Gully erosion rate was estimated to be ~14 t·ha−1·yr−1. Erosion from landslides was significantly higher which was estimated to be ~26 t·ha−1·yr−1. Stream bank erosion varied widely from 0.03 to 0.25 m·yr−1 with a mean erosion rate of ~8 t·ha−1·yr−1. Based on these rates, it was estimated that ~21,000 m3 (64 t·ha−1) of sediment was being eroded within the catchment annually. In comparison to the erosion rates of other regions of the Himalaya these rates are significantly higher.
Highlights
Soil erosion is one of the key environmental issues of mountain ecosystems [1]
Over the past few decades Nepal Himalaya has been the focus of numerous research studies exploring the relationships between different components of the hydrology and geomorphology rainfall, runoff, soil erosion, sediment loss, land use and socio-economic impacts at a broad range of spatial and temporal scales
Monitoring data indicated that sheet erosion from forest and shrubs generally varied from
Summary
Soil erosion is one of the key environmental issues of mountain ecosystems [1]. Knowledge of the interaction of geomorphologic drivers within a catchment in relation to soil erosion and land degradation has been developed by many studies around the world [1,5,6]. Over the past few decades Nepal Himalaya has been the focus of numerous research studies exploring the relationships between different components of the hydrology and geomorphology rainfall, runoff, soil erosion, sediment loss, land use and socio-economic impacts at a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. There has been considerable research on soil erosion issues mostly focused on the Middle Mountain region [7,8,9,10,11,12] and a few in the High Himalaya [13,14]. Gabet et al [13]
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