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Simulating with a combination of RUSLE GIS and sediment delivery ratio for soil restoration

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Abstract

Erosion by water is the main cause of land degradation. Landscapes degraded by erosion need to be restored in many respects, and particularly in terms of ecosystem services. From an economic and management perspective, care is needed to select priority areas and determine the means to be applied to restore them. Globally, the model most commonly used to produce scenarios for the prevention of soil losses is the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). This study of the subbasin of the Sulakyurt Dam Basin in Turkey aims (1) to identify the distribution of soil losses over time and by location, and (2) to grade the priority areas for the prevention of soil losses by means of a simulation. The average potential soil losses in the area under study are estimated at 42.35 t ha−1 year−1, and the average actual losses at 39.49 t ha−1 year−1. According to the simulation, 27.61% of the study area (2782 ha) is of the highest priority for soil restoration. In our study, forests have the highest soil losses, which is contrary to the natural protection that forests provide against erosion. The high rates are due to the slope, the forest area is very steep. So it is the slope factor that outweighs the vegetation cover factor. Of the forest areas, 41.74% (1766 ha) falls within the areas of highest priority. The study serves as a guide for landscape planning and the determination of erosion risk in restoration efforts, and for identifying the methods to be adopted during the restoration work to reduce the loss of soil.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Forestry, Department of Landscape Architecture, Çankırı Karatekin University, Çankırı, Turkey

    Arif Öztürk, Ali Uğur Özcan & İbrahim Aytaş

  2. Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Engineering, Çankırı Karatekin University, Çankırı, Turkey

    Gamze Tuttu

  3. Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Landscape Architecture, Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Aydın, Turkey

    Derya Gülçin

  4. Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Department of Environment and Agroforestry, Catholic University of Ávila, Ávila, Spain

    Jorge Mongil-Manso, Víctor Rincón & Javier Velázquez

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  1. Arif Öztürk
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Contributions

Conceptualization, A.Ö., A.U.Ö, and İ.A.; methodology, A.Ö., A.U.Ö., J.V., and G.T.; software, A.Ö. and A.U.Ö.; formal analysis, A.Ö., A.U.Ö., İ.A., and G.T.; investigation, J.M.M., G.T., and J.V.; resources, A.Ö. and A.U.Ö.; data curation, A.Ö.; writing—original draft preparation, all authors; writing—review and editing, all authors; visualization, A.Ö., J.V., J.M.M., V.R and D.G.; supervision, D.G.; project administration, A.Ö. and A.U.Ö. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to İbrahim Aytaş.

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Öztürk, A., Özcan, A.U., Aytaş, İ. et al. Simulating with a combination of RUSLE GIS and sediment delivery ratio for soil restoration. Environ Monit Assess 195, 719 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11321-7

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