Paper
Soil Erosion Modeling Using Satellite Rainfall Estimates
- Authors:
- Amar Kant Gautam; Ashish Pandey; S.K. Mishra
- Abstract
- This study attempts to assess the soil erosion of a Himalayan River Basin, Karnali and Nepal using the rainfall erosivity (R-factor) derived from satellite rainfall estimates (TRMM-3B42 V7). Average annual sediment yield was estimated using the well-known Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). The annual average rainfall erosivity factor (R) for the Karnali River basin over eight years was found to be 2620.84 MJ mm ha−1 h−1 yr−1. Using intensity-erosivity relationships and a dataset consisting of eight years of TRMM daily rainfall (1998–2005), the average annual soil erosion was also estimated for the Karnali River Basin. Maximum and minimum values of rainfall erosivity varied between 1108.7 and 4868.49 MJ mm ha-1 h-1 yr-1 during the assessment period. The average annual soil loss in the Karnali River basin was found to be 38.17 t ha-1 yr-1. Finally, the total basin area was categorized into the following erosion classes: slight (0 to 5 t ha-1yr-1); moderate (5 to 10 t ha-1yr-1); high (10 to 20 t ha-1yr-1); very high (20 to 40 t ha-1yr-1); Severe (40 to 80 t ha-1yr-1); and Very Severe (>80 t ha-1yr-1). Approximately 30.86% of the river basin area was found to be in the slight erosion class. Areas covered by moderate, high, very high, severe and very severe erosion potential zones accounted for 13.09%, 6.36%, 11.09%, 22.02% and 16.64% of the study area, respectively. This study revealed that approximately 69% of the Karnali River basin needs immediate attention from soil conservation analysts.
- Keywords
- Soil Erosion; TRMM; USLE; Prioritization; Himalayan River Basin
- StartPage
- 318
- EndPage
- 325
- Doi
- 10.5963/JWRHE0404002