Spatial Monitoring of Potential Overland Sediment from Significant Land Use Types, for the Remote Contaminated Area of the Mae Tao Basin, Thailand: 15 Years Monitoring Period

Abstract

Abstract-The Mae Tao Basin in Mae Sot district, Thailand, is a cadmium contaminated area, where the transcendent media transporter of the contaminant is sediment leached from various surface runoff. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) incorporated with remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) software were applied to conduct a long-term monitoring of the potential erosion that can be leached out of the significant land use of the Mae Tao Basin from 2002 to 2016. The erosion potential was calculated based on the secondary data from both government and private sectors. The spatial analysis results indicate that high level of potential erosion occurred in the mining production as well as the deciduous forest area of the Mae Tao Basin. In addition, the correlation between the overland sediment and the contamination level in the water system of the basin demonstrates that the sediments from mining production area have the highest correlation to the contamination in the water system of the Mae Tao Basin.