Risk assessment of soil erosion in semi-arid mountainous watershed in Saudi Arabia by RUSLE model coupled with remote sensing and GIS |
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| Authors: | Javed Mallick Yasser Alashker Shams Al-Deen Mohammad Mohd Ahmed Mohd Abul Hasan |
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| Institution: | 1. Faculty of Engineering, King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabiajmallick@kku.edu.sa;3. Faculty of Engineering, King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia;4. Faculty of Engineering, Zagazig University, Ash Sharqiyah, Egypt;5. Faculty of Engineering, Banha University, Qalyubia, Egypt;6. Faculty of Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India |
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| Abstract: | Soil erosion is the most important factor in land degradation and influences desertification in semi-arid areas. A comprehensive methodology that integrates revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) model and GIS was adopted to determine the soil erosion risk (SER) in semi-arid Aseer region, Saudi Arabia. Geoenvironmental factors viz. rainfall (R), soil erodibility (K), slope (LS), cover management and practice factors were computed to determine their effects on average annual soil loss. The high potential soil erosion, resulting from high denuded slope, devoid of vegetation cover and high intensity rainfall, is located towards the north western part of the study area. The analysis is investigated that the SER over the vegetation cover including dense vegetation, sparse vegetation and bushes increases with the higher altitude and higher slope angle. The erosion maps generated with RUSLE integrated with GIS can serve as effective inputs in deriving strategies for land planning/management in the environmentally sensitive mountainous areas. |
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| Keywords: | soil erosion semi-arid watershed RUSLE model geospatial techniques |
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