Assessment of Harir Basin Against Soil Erosion in Kurdistan Region-Iraq
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Soil erosion negatively impacts water management, agricultural lands, amounts of sedimentation in reservoirs and rivers, water pollution, human health, countries' economies, and ecosystems. This study is important for water, soil, and environment management. In the present study, the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) has been integrated with the Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques to calculate the annual rate of soil erosion of Harir Basin and to classify it on this basis and according to the soil erosion risk classes. The spatial distribution of the average rainfall erosivity factor (Average (R-Factor)), soil erodibility factor (K-Factor), slope length and slope steepness factor (LS-Factor), cropping management factor (C-Factor), and conservation practice factor (P-Factor) have been created and mapped using ArcGIS 10.8.1 software based on the average annual rainfall map from (2000 to 2021), soil map, slope map in percentage with flow accumulation map, land use and land cover map, and slope map in percentage for Harir Basin, respectively. Overall, the results of assessing Harir Basin against soil erosion have illustrated that the annual rate of soil erosion for the area of study ranges from 0.0 (ton.ha^(-1).year^(-1)) to 8.46 (ton.ha^(-1).year^(-1)). Moreover, 99.99% of the study area was under slight soil erosion, while only 0.01% was under moderate soil erosion.
Metrics
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
THIS IS AN OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE UNDER THE CC BY LICENSE http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Plaudit
References
Angima S, Stott D, O’neill M, Ong C, Weesies G. Soil Erosion Prediction Using Rusle for Central Kenyan Highland Conditions. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 2003; 97(1-3):295–308. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-8809(03)00011-2
Pimentel D. Soil Erosion: A Food and Environmental Threat. Environment, Development and Sustainability 2006; 8(1):119–137. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-005-1262-8
Lal R. Soil Degradation by Erosion. Land Degradation & Development 2001; 12(6):519–539. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.472
Sibbesen E. Phosphorus, Nitrogen and Carbon in Particle-Size Fractions of Soils and Sediments. Surface Runoff, Erosion and Loss of Phosphorus at Two Agricultural Soils in Denmark, Plot Studies 1989;1992:135–148.
Steegen A, Govers G, Takken I, Nachtergaele J, Poesen J, Merckx R. Factors Controlling Sediment and Phosphorus Export from Two Belgian Agricultural Catchments. Journal of Environmental Quality 2001; 30(4):1249–1258. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2001.3041249x
Boardman J, Ligneau L, de Roo A, Vandaele K. Flooding of Property by Runoff from Agricultural Land in Northwestern Europe. Geomorphology and Natural Hazards: Elsevier; 1994. pp. 183–196. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-82012-9.50017-7
Verstraeten G, Poesen J. The Nature of Small-Scale Flooding, Muddy Floods and Retention Pond Sedimentation in Central Belgium. Geomorphology 1999; 29(3-4):275–292. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-555X(99)00020-3
Meyer L, Bauer A, Heil R. Experimental Approaches for Quantifying the Effect of Soil Erosion on Productivity. Soil Erosion and Crop Productivity 1985:213–234. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2134/1985.soilerosionandcrop.c13
Oyedele J. Effects of Erosion on the Productivity of Selected Southwestern Nigerian Soils. Department of Soil Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; 1996.
Valipour M. Drainage, Waterlogging, and Salinity. Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science 2014; 60(12):1625–1640. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03650340.2014.905676
Amore E, Modica C, Nearing MA, Santoro VC. Scale Effect in USLE and Wepp Application for Soil Erosion Computation from Three Sicilian Basins. Journal of Hydrology 2004; 293(1-4):100–114. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2004.01.018
Sfeir-Younis A. Soil Conservation in Developing Countries, Western Africa Projects Department. The World Bank; 1986.
Barrow CJ. Land Degradation: Development and Breakdown of Terrestrial Environments. Cambridge University Press; 1991.
El Jazouli A, et al. Soil Erosion Modeled with USLE, GIS, and Remote Sensing: A Case Study of Ikkour Watershed in Middle Atlas (Morocco). Geoscience Letters 2017; 4(1):1–12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40562-017-0091-6
Keya D. Integration of GIS with USLE in Assessing Soil Loss from Alibag Catchment, Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Journal of Polytechnic 2018; 8(1): 12-16.
López-García EM, et al. Estimation of Soil Erosion Using USLE and GIS in the Locality of Tzicatlacoyan, Puebla, México. Soil and Water Research 2019; 15(1):9–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17221/165/2018-SWR
Roy P. Application of USLE in a GIS Environment to Estimate Soil Erosion in the Irga Watershed, Jharkhand, India. Physical Geography 2019; 40(4):361–383. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02723646.2018.1550301
Ghosh A, Rakshit S, Tikle S, Das S, Chatterjee U, Pande CB, Mattar MA. Integration of GIS and Remote Sensing with Rusle Model for Estimation of Soil Erosion. Land 2022; 12(1):116, (1-15). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land12010116
Serbaji MM, Bouaziz M, Weslati O. Soil Water Erosion Modeling in Tunisia Using Rusle and GIS Integrated Approaches and Geospatial Data. Land 2023; 12(3):548, (1-22). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/land12030548
Mehwish M, Nasir MJ, Raziq A, Al-Quraishi AMF, Ghaib FA. Soil Erosion Vulnerability and Soil Loss Estimation for Siran River Watershed, Pakistan: An Integrated GIS and Remote Sensing Approach. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 2024; 196(1):104. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-12262-x
Torres DS, Porrà JM, Creutin J-D. A General Formulation for Raindrop Size Distribution. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 1994; 33(12):1494–1502. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1994)033<1494:AGFFRS>2.0.CO;2
Erpul G, Gabriels D, Cornelis W, Samray H, Guzelordu T. Sand Transport under Increased Lateral Jetting of Raindrops Induced by Wind. Geomorphology 2009; 104(3-4): 191–202. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2008.08.012
Ryżak M, Bieganowski A, Polakowski C. Effect of Soil Moisture Content on the Splash Phenomenon Reproducibility. PLoS One 2015; 10(3) :1–15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0119269
Descroix L, et al. Gully and Sheet Erosion on Subtropical Mountain Slopes: Their Respective Roles and the Scale Effect. Catena 2008; 72(3) :325–339. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2007.07.003
Knapen A, Poesen J, Govers G, Gyssels G, Nachtergaele J. Resistance of Soils to Concentrated Flow Erosion: A Review. Earth-Science Reviews 2007; 80(1-2):75–109. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2006.08.001
Al-Kaisi M. Soil Erosion: An Agricultural Production Challenge. Integrated Crop Management 2000; 484(19):141–143.
Warren J. Raindrops and Bombs: The Erosion Process. Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service; 2010.
Guo M, Yang B, Wang W, Chen Z, Wang W, Zhao M, Kang H. Distribution, Morphology and Influencing Factors of Rills under Extreme Rainfall Conditions in Main Land Uses on the Loess Plateau of China. Geomorphology 2019; 345: 106847, (1-15). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2019.106847
Hughes A. Riparian Management and Stream Bank Erosion in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 2016; 50(2):277–290. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00288330.2015.1116449
Florsheim JL, Mount JF, Chin A. Bank Erosion as a Desirable Attribute of Rivers. BioScience 2008; 58(6):519–529. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1641/B580608
Zobeck TM, Van Pelt RS. Wind Erosion. In: Hillel D, Hatfield J, Sauer T, Soil Management: Building a Stable Base for Agriculture. USA: American Society of Agronomy; 2011.
Saber MJ, Suleimany JMS. Application of Rs and GIS Techniques for Estimating the Rainfall Erosivity (R) of Harir River Basin in Kurdistan Region of Iraq Kri. Tikrit Journal of Engineering Sciences 2022; 29(3):24–32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/tjes.29.3.3
Wahono BFD. Applications of Statistical and Heuristic Methods for Landslide Susceptibility Assessments. Unpublished Technical Report, Gadjah Mada University and International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation; 2010.
KRG. Meteorological Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Kurdistan Region Government (KRG), Iraq. 2022.
FAO. Digital Soil Map of the World (DSMW) - Esri Shapefile Format. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of The United Nations; 2023. Available from: https://data.apps.fao.org/map/catalog/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/446ed430-8383-11db-b9b2-000d939bc5d8
Idowu J, Ghimire R, Flynn R, Ganguli A. Soil Health: Importance, Assessment, and Management. College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; 2019.
Usman U, Yelwa S, Gulumbe S, Danbaba A, Nir R. Modelling Relationship between Ndvi and Climatic Variables Using Geographically Weighted Regression. Journal of Mathematical Sciences and Applications 2013; 1(2):24–28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12691/ajams-1-5-3
Jasinski MF. Sensitivity of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index to Subpixel Canopy Cover, Soil Albedo, and Pixel Scale. Remote Sensing of Environment 1990; 32(2-3):169–187. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0034-4257(90)90016-F
Akbar TA, et al. Investigative Spatial Distribution and Modelling of Existing and Future Urban Land Changes and Its Impact on Urbanization and Economy. Remote Sensing 2019; 11(2):105, (1-15). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11020105
Rwanga SS, Ndambuki JM. Accuracy Assessment of Land Use/Land Cover Classification Using Remote Sensing and GIS. International Journal of Geosciences 2017; 8(4): 611-622. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4236/ijg.2017.84033
Kaul HA, Sopan I. Land Use Land Cover Classification and Change Detection Using High Resolution Temporal Satellite Data. Journal of Environment 2012; 1(4):146–152.
Petropoulos GP, Kalivas DP, Georgopoulou IA, Srivastava PK. Urban Vegetation Cover Extraction from Hyperspectral Imagery and Geographic Information System Spatial Analysis Techniques: Case of Athens, Greece. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 2015; 9(1):096088. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JRS.9.096088
Azen R, Walker CM. Categorical Data Analysis for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Routledge; 2011. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203843611
Wischmeier WH, Smith DD. Predicting Rainfall Erosion Losses: A Guide to Conservation Planning. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Handbook No. 537; 1978.
Singh G, Babu R, Narain P, Bhushan L, Abrol I. Soil Erosion Rates in India. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 1992; 47(1):97–99. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00224561.1992.12456680
Lal R. Soil Erosion in the Tropics: Principles and Management. McGraw-Hill; 1990.
Ali SA, Hagos H. Estimation of Soil Erosion Using USLE and GIS in Awassa Catchment, Rift Valley, Central Ethiopia. Geoderma Regional 2016; 7(2):159–166. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geodrs.2016.03.005
Ferrari R, Pasqui M, Bottai L, Esposito S, Di Giuseppe E. Assessment of Soil Erosion Estimate Based on a High Temporal Resolution Rainfall Dataset. 7th European Conference on Applications of Meteorology (ECAM), Utrecht, Netherlands; 2005. pp. 12–16.
Renard KG, Freimund JR. Using Monthly Precipitation Data to Estimate the R-Factor in the Revised USLE. Journal of Hydrology 1994; 157(1-4):287–306. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1694(94)90110-4
Yu B, Rosewell C. Technical Notes: A Robust Estimator of the R-Factor for the Universal Soil Loss Equation. Transactions of the ASAE 1996; 39(2): 559–561. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.27535
da Silva AM. Rainfall Erosivity Map for Brazil. Catena 2004; 57(3):251–259. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2003.11.006
Erdogan EH, Erpul G, Bayramin İ. Use of USLE/GIS Methodology for Predicting Soil Loss in a Semiarid Agricultural Watershed. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 2007; 131(1):153–161. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-006-9464-6
Hui L, Xiaoling C, Lim KJ, Xiaobin C, Sagong M. Assessment of Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield in Liao Watershed, Jiangxi Province, China, Using USLE, GIS, and RS. Journal of Earth Science 2010; 21(6): 941–953. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-010-0147-4
Stone R, Hilborn D. Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) Factsheet. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA); 2012.
Foster G, McCool D, Renard K, Moldenhauer W. Conversion of the Universal Soil Loss Equation to SI Metric Units. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 1981; 36(6):355–359. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00224561.1981.12436140
De Lannoy GJ, Koster RD, Reichle RH, Mahanama SP, Liu Q. An Updated Treatment of Soil Texture and Associated Hydraulic Properties in a Global Land Modeling System. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 2014; 6(4):957–979. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/2014MS000330
Biesemans J, Van Meirvenne M, Gabriels D. Extending the Rusle with the Monte Carlo Error Propagation Technique to Predict Long-Term Average Off-Site Sediment Accumulation. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 2000; 55(1):35–42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00224561.2000.12457305
De Jong SM. Derivation of Vegetative Variables from a Landsat Tm Image for Modelling Soil Erosion. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 1994; 19(2):165–178. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.3290190207
Patil R, Sharma S. Remote Sensing and GIS Based Modeling of Crop/Cover Management Factor (C) of USLE in Shakker River Watershed. Proceedings of the International Conference on Chemical, Agricultural and Medical Sciences (CAMS-2013); 2013. pp. 29–30.
Pham TG, Degener J, Kappas M. Integrated Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and Geographical Information System (GIS) for Soil Erosion Estimation in a Sap Basin: Central Vietnam. International Soil and Water Conservation Research 2018; 6(2):99–110. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iswcr.2018.01.001
Bakker MM, et al. The Response of Soil Erosion and Sediment Export to Land-Use Change in Four Areas of Europe: The Importance of Landscape Pattern. Geomorphology 2008; 98(3-4):213–226. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.12.027
Bouguerra H, Bouanani A, Khanchoul K, Derdous O, Tachi SE. Mapping Erosion Prone Areas in the Bouhamdane Watershed (Algeria) Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation through GIS. Journal of Water and Land Development 2017; 32: 13–23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jwld-2017-0002
Devatha C, Deshpande V, Renukaprasad M. Estimation of Soil Loss Using USLE Model for Kulhan Watershed, Chattisgarh – A Case Study. Aquatic Procedia 2015; 4:1429–1436. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aqpro.2015.02.185
Shin G. The Analysis of Soil Erosion in Watershed Using GIS. [PhD Thesis]. Department of Civil Engineering, Gangwon National University, Gangwon-do, South Korea; 1999.
Cohen J. A Coefficient of Agreement for Nominal Scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement 1960; 20(1): 37–46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/001316446002000104