Development of Erosion Hotspots for a Watershed
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 12
Abstract
The loss of topsoil in the United States has resulted in low crop yield, reduction of reservoir capacity, cost increase of water treatment, and detrimental effects on aquatic life and wildlife habitats. An initial step for taking conservation measures in any watershed is to identify locations where erosion protection measures are needed. Applying the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and a geographic information system (GIS), this study attempts to locate the most erodible locations, namely erosion hotspots, for a watershed. Using GIS, the watershed is divided into grids and the RUSLE, including rainfall-runoff erosivity factor, soil erodibility factor, combined slope length and slope steepness factor, cover management factor, and support practice factor, is applied for the estimation of soil erosion potential for each grid cell. By ranking these grid values of erosion potential in a descending order, the top 1% and corresponding locations are defined as the erosion hot spots, which can be expressed in an erosion hotspot map. Applying this method to the Charles Mill Lake Watershed in Ohio, it is found that the erosion hotspots for the watershed under investigation are generally located in the areas of strip mine and cropland/pasture.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The support provided by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District in Ohio is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also want to thank the Huntington District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the assistance for the study. Assistance for preparing the manuscript provided by Ms. Hong Zhou, Research Assistant, Civil Engineering Department, Ohio University is appreciated.
References
ArcGIS [Computer software]. Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), Redlands, CA.
Barrow, C. J. (1991). Land degradation: Development and breakdown of terrestrial environments, University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Chang, T. J., Bartrand, T. A., and Germain, R. (2001). “Spatial variations of water loss during drought: A GIS case study.” J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 37(1), 115–123.
Chang, T. J., Bayes, T. D., and McKeever, S. (2000). “Selection of wetland sites for reservoir dredging materials using GIS.” Proc., Options for Dredged Material Disposal Management, MIT Sea Grant Program Press, Cambridge, MA.
Doerr, S. H., Woods, S. W., Martin, D. A., and Casimiro, M. (2009). “Natural background soil water repellency in conifer forests of north-western USA.” J. Hydrol., 371(1–4), 12–21.
Foster, G. R., Meyer, L. D., and Onstad, C. A. (1977). “A runoff erosivity factor and variable slope length exponents for soil loss estimates.” Trans. ASAE, 20(4), 683–687.
Foster, G. R., and Wischmeier, W. H. (1974). “Evaluating irregular slopes for soil loss prediction.” Trans. ASAE, 17, 305–309.
Gabriel, D. (1999). “The effect of slope length on the amount and size distribution of eroded silt loam soils: Short slope laboratory experiments on interrill erosion.” Geomorphol., 28(1–2), 169–172.
Goldman, S. (1986). Erosion and sediment control handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York, 5.2–5.15.
Lang, S. S. (2006). “Slow, insidious soil erosion threatens human health and welfare as well as environment.” Chronicle Online, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Long, H. L., et al. (2006). “Land use and soil erosion in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.” Land Degrad. Develop., 17(6), 589–603.
Lopez, T. M., Aide, T. M., and Scatena, F. N. (1998). “The effect of land use on soil erosion in Guadiana Watershed in Puerto Rico.” Caribbean J. Sci., 34(3–4), 298–307.
McCool, D. K., Foster, G. R., Mutchler, C. K., and Meyer, L. D. (1989). “Revised slope length factor for the Universal Soil Loss Equation.” Trans. ASAE, 32, 1571–1576.
McIsaac, G. G., Mitchell, J. K., and Hirschi, M. C. (1987). “Slope steepness effects on soil loss from disturbed lands.” Trans. Am. Soc. Agric. Eng., 30(4), 1005–1013.
McNulty, S., Swift, L., Hayes, J., and Clingapeel, A. (1995). “Predicting watershed erosion protection and overland sediment transport using GIS.” Proc., Int. Erosion Control Assoc. (IECA), International Erosion Control Association, Denver, CO, 397–406.
Mitra, B., Scott, H. D., Dixon, J. C., and McKimmey, J. M. (1998). “Applications of fuzzy logic to the prediction of soil erosion in a large watershed.” Geoderma, 86(3–4), 183–209.
Molnár, D. K., and Julien, P. Y. (1998). “Estimation of upland erosion using GIS.” Comput. Geosci., 24(2), 183–192.
Morgan, R. P. C., et al. (1998). “The European soil erosion model: A dynamic approach for predicting sediment transport from field and small catchment.” Earth Surf. Processes Landforms, 23(6), 527–544.
Mutchler, C. K. (1970). “Splash of a waterdrop at terminal velocity.” Sci., 169(3952), 1311–1312.
National Land Cover Database (NLCD). (2006). A database for national land cover maintained by Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC), USGS, Sioux Falls, SD.
Renard, K. G., Foster, G. R., Weesies, G. A., McCool, D. K., and Yoder, D. C. (1997). Predicting soil erosion by water: A guide for conservation planning with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), USDA, Washington, DC.
Romkens, M. J. M., Helming, K., and Prasad, S. N. (2002). “Soil erosion under different rainfall intensities, surface roughness, and soil water regimes.” Catena, 46(2–3), 103–123.
Roose, E. J. (1997). Use of the Universal Soil Loss Equation to predict erosion in West Africa, soil erosion: Prediction and control, Soil Conservation Society of America, Anheny, IA, 60–74.
Schwab, G. O., Fangmeier, D. D., Elliot, W. J., and Frevert, R. K. (2002). Soil and water management systems, Wiley, New York.
Teixeira, P. C., and Misra, R. K. (1997). “Erosin and sediment characteristics of cultivated forest soils as affected by the mechanical stability of aggregates.” Cantena, 30(2–3), 119–134.
USGS. (2013). “United States Geological Survey (USGS) national map site for the data.” 〈http://nationalmap.gov/viewer.html〉.
Wischmeier, W. H., and Smith, D. D. (1978). “Predicting rainfall erosion losses—A guide to conservation planning.” Handbook No. 537, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, DC.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 12 • December 2013
Pages: 1011 - 1017
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 28, 2012
Accepted: Jun 21, 2013
Published online: Jun 24, 2013
Discussion open until: Nov 24, 2013
Published in print: Dec 1, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.