Sharma Navneet, Kaushal Arun, Yousuf Abrar, Sood Anil, Kaur Samanpreet, Sharda Rakesh
Department of Soil and Water Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India, 141004.
Punjab Agricultural University-Regional Research Station, Ballowal Saunkhri, SBS Nagar, Punjab, India, 144521.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Jan;30(1):515-531. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-22152-3. Epub 2022 Jul 28.
Erosion of soil by water coupled with human activities is considered as one of the most serious agents of land degradation, posing severe threat to agricultural productivity, soil health, water quality, and ecological setup. The assessment of soil erosion and recognition of problematic watersheds are pre-requisite for management of erosion hazards. In the present study, Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) integrated with remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) has been used to assess the soil erosion in lower Sutlej River basin of Punjab, India, and prioritize the watersheds for implementation of land and water conservation measures. The total basin area was about 8577 km which was divided into 14 sub-watersheds with the area ranging from 357.8 to 1354 km. The data on rainfall (IMD gridded data), soil characteristics (FAO soil map), topography (ALOS PALSAR DEM) and land use (ESRI land use and land cover map) were prepared in the form of raster layers and overlaid together to determine the average annual soil loss. The results revealed that the average annual soil loss varied from 1.26 to 25 t ha, whereas total soil loss was estimated to be 2,441,639 tonnes. The spatial distribution map of soil erosion showed that about 94.4% and 4.7% of the total area suffered from very slight erosion (0-5 t ha year) and slight erosion (5-10 t ha year), respectively, whereas 0.11% (9.38 km) experienced very severe soil loss (> 25 t ha year). Based on estimated average annual soil loss of sub-watersheds, WS8 was assigned the highest priority for implementation of soil and water conservation measures (323.5 t ha year), followed by WS9 (303.8 t ha year), whereas WS2 was given last priority owing to its lowest value of soil loss (122.02 t ha year). The present study urges that conservation strategies should be carried out in accordance with the priority ranking of diverse watersheds. These findings can certainly be used to implement soil conservation plans and management practices in order to diminish soil loss in the river basin.
水蚀与人类活动相结合被认为是土地退化最严重的因素之一，对农业生产力、土壤健康、水质和生态环境构成严重威胁。土壤侵蚀评估和问题流域识别是侵蚀危害管理的先决条件。在本研究中，结合遥感（RS）和地理信息系统（GIS）的修订通用土壤流失方程（RUSLE）被用于评估印度旁遮普邦萨特莱杰河下游流域的土壤侵蚀，并对流域进行优先排序，以实施水土保持措施。流域总面积约8577平方公里，分为14个子流域，面积从357.8平方公里到1354平方公里不等。降雨数据（印度气象局网格数据）、土壤特性（粮农组织土壤图）、地形（先进陆地观测卫星相控阵L波段合成孔径雷达数字高程模型）和土地利用数据（环境系统研究所土地利用和土地覆盖图）以栅格图层的形式准备好并叠加在一起，以确定年平均土壤流失量。结果表明，年平均土壤流失量在1.26至25吨/公顷之间，而总土壤流失量估计为2441639吨。土壤侵蚀空间分布图显示，总面积的约94.4%和4.7%分别遭受极轻微侵蚀（0 - 5吨/公顷·年）和轻微侵蚀（5 - 10吨/公顷·年），而0.11%（9.38平方公里）经历了极严重的土壤流失（>25吨/公顷·年）。根据子流域估计的年平均土壤流失量，WS8被赋予实施水土保持措施的最高优先级（323.5吨/公顷·年），其次是WS9（303.8吨/公顷·年），而WS2由于其最低的土壤流失值（122.02吨/公顷·年）被赋予最后优先级。本研究敦促应根据不同流域的优先级排名实施保护策略。这些发现肯定可用于实施土壤保护计划和管理措施，以减少流域内的土壤流失。
