Plants Suitability for Landslides Mitigation in the Giritengah Catchment Area, Indonesia

Abstract

Changes in land use caused by human dependence on land to meet food, clothing, and settlement needs are in line with population growth. This triggers the destruction of watersheds and results in an increased of disasters such as landslides that lead to decrease land productivity and less water throughout the year. This study aims to determine the plant suitability for both annual plant species (forestry plants), and seasonal crops (agricultural crops) in the Giritengah catchment area. In addition, this study also aims to provide the proposed species that are suitable and at the same time allow for land improvement efforts. The results showed that the suitability classes for forestry plant species (teak, sengon, and mahogany) and annual plant species (chili, banana, and cassava) in Giritengah catchment were unsuitable/incompatible (N) with erosion hazard level as the heaviest limiting factor. There are two variable levels of erosion hazard, which are one of the reasons for the unsuitability of these plant species, namely the slope, which tends to be steep and the shallow soil solumn. To overcome this, it is necessary to apply soil and water conservation techniques both technically and vegetative.