Country-scale spatio-temporal monitoring of soil erosion in Iran using the G2 model

Abstract

The aim of this study was the spatial and temporal monitoring of soil erosion patterns in Iran. The G2 model was used, as an appropriate tool to provide the required month-time step country-wide soil loss maps and statistical outputs. The input parameters were derived with field surveys and remote sensing imagery (MODIS, SRTM, SPOT, and Sentinel-2 scenes). An innovation for G2 was the consideration of the snow cover effect on the rainfall erosivity. It was also the first time G2 was used to map such a big country like Iran on a country scale. The mean annual soil erosion in Iran was found to be 16.5 t ha−1, which is equal to about 2.7 billion tons of soil loss. In spatial terms, the highest soil loss values were found in the north, west and southwest part of Iran, in the steep slopes in Alborz and Zagros mountains. In temporal terms, the highest and lowest monthly erosion values of 3.2 and 0.09 t ha−1 correspond to January and July, respectively.

Keywords

• digital earth
• land degradation
• sediment yield
• sentinel-2
• snow cover effect