ASSESSMENT AND MAPPING OF SOIL SENSITIVITY TO EROSION USING GIS IN MELLEGUE CATCHMENT, NORTHEAST OF ALGERIA

Abstract

In Algeria, there is an urgent need for cartographic zones touched by erosion and also to target priority risk areas to improve the consistency of erosion prevention actions. Such a mapping must be able to display the areas at sensitivity to erosion and must take into account the developments to be undertaken. It is in this perspective that this study is carried out for (a) to map the sensitivity to erosion in the Mellegue catchment by relying on three factors of erosion namely topography, lithology and land use; and (b) to propose a management plan for vulnerable areas. This study is conducted using a Geographic Information System, which has allowed to characterize different areas of the study catchment and its sub-basins by producing a synthetic map of degrees of susceptibility to erosion.The results has shown that the basin has dominant areas of medium to high sensitivity to erosion, despite the existence of a considerable low sensitive area, corresponding to 47% of the basin area and observed mainly at the Meskiana sub-basin. The integration of the results into three levels of sub-basins has allowed identifying the most susceptible areas to erosion. This study provides sufficient data for a prioritization of the study basin according to their degree of erosion, making possible to the different actors, the management of the territory.

Keywords

• erosion
• erosion factors
• catchment
• mapping
• gis
• sensitivity