Impact of land use/land cover changes on soil erosion risk in upper Mile River sub-watershed, North Eastern highlands of Ethiopia

Abstract

ABSTRACTUnsustainable management of land resources aggravates land degradation. An accurate assessment of soil erosion is needed to reduce the problem of soil loss in highly fragile mountainous areas. Modeling the impact of LULCC on soil erosion is a vital process for watershed management planning. This study aimed to examine the effect of changing LULC on soil erosion in the upper Mile sub watershed, North Eastern highlands of Ethiopia. It was done by quantifying and evaluating soil erosion over years 1989–2018 in the area. The data was acquired from field surveys and secondary sources. The RUSLE was employed in a GIS environment to create soil erosion maps using the factors’. The soil loss model predicts 58.90%, 12.40%, 8.90%, and 8.89% of the sub-watershed has predicted as low, moderate, high and very high erosion risk, respectively. The mean annual soil loss rate of the area had increased from 16.07 tha−1 y−1 in 1989 to 17.26 tha−1 y−1 in 2003 and decrease to 12.94 tha−1y−1 in 2018. This was attributed to area closure interventions over the last two decades. The differences in soil erosion risk among the three periods suggested that changes in LULC have a significant impact on soil erosion risk.

Keywords

• Soil erosion
• RUSLE
• GIS
• Ethiopia