Impact of Land Use Land Cover on Soil Erosion in Krishna Lower Subbasin

Abstract

Soil degradation is a severe environmental problem confronting the world today. A study was undertaken to apply revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) to estimate the soil erosion and effect of land use and land cover on soil erosion in Krishna lower sub-basin using Remote Sensing and GIS. Spatial map of each RUSLE parameters was derived in Arc GIS 10.1 and ERDAS IMAGINE 9.3 for the 11317.36 km2 Krishna lower sub-basin catchment in Andhra Pradesh. The values of R, K, LS, C, P factors of the catchment area were used to generate soil erosion spatial maps. The study showed that the average annual soil loss was sensitive to rainfall factor, R, land use and land cover. The computed maximum annual soil erosion for the years 1993 to 2015 was 28.69 t.ha-1. yr-1. Severe erosion was found in settlements, wasteland and during rabi crop. The estimated soil loss from “high” to “very high” occurred in scrubland. Moderate erosion occurred in double/ triple cropping area, and slight erosion occurred in forest and during kharif crop.