Dynamic Analysis Of Soil Erosion-Based Watershed Health

Abstract

Accelerated soil erosion is one of the most important detrimental factors affecting the quality of the watershed health. Due to different environmental pressures and drivers, the effort is needed for ecological health and resilience assessment in regards to erosion changeability. However, this important subject has not been adequately studied yet. Towards this, in the present research, an innovative approach was developed for conceptualizing the watershed health dynamics in viewpoint of soil erosion. A risk-based study was conducted to quantitatively characterize the spatiotemporal variability of erosion-based health in an industrialized watershed i.e., the Shazand Watershed using the conceptual reliability, resilience and vulnerability (RelResVul) framework for four node years of 1986, 1998, 2008 and 2014. To this end, the soil erosion was estimated at monthly scale in 24 sub-watersheds by applying the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). The RelResVul indicators were then computed according to the threshold defined for the study watershed. A geometric mean was used to combine the three risk indicators and the erosion-based watershed health index was ultimately calculated for each study sub-watershed. Additionally, the change detection analysis was conducted over the years of 1986 to 2014. According to the results of erosion-based the RelResVul indices, very healthy, healthy, moderately healthy, unhealthy and very un-healthy conditions in the Shazand Watershed were respectively distributed over some 67, 25, zero, zero and eight percent for 1986; 50, 13, eight, zero and 29 % for 1998; 71, eight, 83, zero, zero and eight percent for 2008 and finally 71, zero, 17, zero and 12 % for 2014. The results of change detection revealed an oscillating trend of erosion-based watershed health index during the whole study period (1986 -2014). So that, during periods of 1986-1998, 1986-2008 and 1986-2014, the watershed health decreased at tune of 23, 13 and six percent, respectively. Whilst, the watershed health improved during study periods of 1998-2008 (13 %), 2008-2014 (eight percent) and 1998-2014 (22 %). The results also identified ‘hot spots’ of the most important index of land degradation and ‘bright spots’ of land improvement in the Shazand Watershed.The proposed approach would provide a sustainable framework supporting decision makers to comprehend health-related soil erosion targets according to the integrated watershed management plans.

Geodetic and UAV Monitoring in the Sustainable Management of Shallow Landslides and Erosion of a Susceptible Urban Environment

“…As an overall perspective of the triggering factors in this study, the slope of the land can be included, with a slope of over 30 • , relatively poor vegetation, as well as other factors, of which anthropogenic intervention has obviously become more pronounced [8,38]. The growing real estate interest in the area and the development of the new neighborhood, the beltway that has been heavily circulated in recent years, the continuous vibrations due to traffic, the heavy equipment used in the local development of buildings, etc., are the main elements of anthropogenic intervention with unfavorable consequences on land stability [43,[62][63][64][65]. To these can be added factors related to the exploitation of the land from an agricultural point of view, the grazing of the sheep contributing to the drastic restriction of the shrubby and even grassy vegetation that increase the risk of soil erosion [63,66].…”

A Bibliometric Analysis on Land Degradation: Current Status, Development, and Future Directions

“…The form and intensity of soil erosion are temporally and spatially different. Therefore, the dynamic monitoring of soil erosion intensity is of great significance for the prevention and control of soil erosion [15,69]. The use of modelling is a commonly used method for the quantitative measurement of soil erosion.…”

“…It not only destroys land resources, but also causes land productivity to drop. Moreover, the acceleration of soil erosion is one of the important unfavorable factors affecting the health and quality of watersheds [15]. Land-degradation issues increasingly require the support of geophysical methods related to soil systems, as spatial variability is an understanding of system resilience and the planning of appropriate restoration and rehabilitation strategy applications [16].…”

A GIS-Based Spatial Analysis Model Approach for Identification of Optimal Hydrotechnical Solutions for Gully Erosion Stabilization. Case Study

“…Among the erosion processes that severely affect agricultural areas, ravine formation is the main issue when trying to ameliorate lands for reintroduction into the agricultural circuit for productive purposes [11,12]. The development of technical projects to reduce erosion and stabilize ravines affecting degraded lands in order to reduce vulnerability and risk induced in the territory are the subject of several studies developed over the years that are regarded as classical methodologies of analysis and evaluation.…”