Record Details

Predicting the spatial distribution of soil erodibility factor using USLE nomograph in an agricultural watershed, Ethiopia

MELSpace

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Predicting the spatial distribution of soil erodibility factor using USLE nomograph in an agricultural watershed, Ethiopia
 
Creator Addis, Hailu Kendie
 
Contributor Klik, Andreas
 
Description Soil erosion in the northwestern Amhara region, Ethiopia has been a subject of anxiety, resulting in a major environmental threat to the sustainability and productive capacity of agricultural areas. This study tried to estimate soil erodibility factor (Kfactor) using Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) nomograph, and evaluate the spatial distribution of the predicted K-factor in a mountainous agricultural watershed. To investigate the K-factor, the 54 km2 study watershed was divided into a 500 m by 500 m
square grid and approximately at the center of each grid, topsoil samples (roughly 10 to 20 cm depth) were collected over 234 locations. Sand, silt, clay and organic matter (OM) percentage were analyzed, while soil permeability and structure class codes were obtained using the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) document. The resulting coefficient of variation (CV) of the estimated K-factor was 0.31, suggesting a moderate variability. Meanwhile, the value of nugget to sill ratio of K-factor was
0.32, which categorized as moderate spatial autocorrelation. Prediction accuracy and model fitting effect of the Gaussian semivariogram approach was best, suggesting that the Gaussian ordinary Kriging model was more appropriate for predicting Kfactor. The resulting value of the mean error (ME) was 0 and the mean squared deviation ratio (MSDR) was nearly 1, which indicates the Gaussian model was unbiased and reproduced the experimental variance sufficiently. The values of K-factor were smaller (0.0217 to 0.0188) in the northern part and gradually increased (0.0273 to 0.033 Mg h MJ 1 mm 1 ) towards the central
and south of the study watershed.
 
Date 2015-12-08
2017-02-13T00:44:19Z
2017-02-13T00:44:19Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier https://mel.cgiar.org/reporting/download/hash/L7oxahFv
Hailu Kendie Addis, Andreas Klik. (8/12/2015). Predicting the spatial distribution of soil erodibility factor using USLE nomograph in an agricultural watershed, Ethiopia. International Soil and Water Conservation Research, 3, pp. 282-290.
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11766/5734
Open access
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
 
Format PDF
 
Publisher International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation and China Water and Power Press
 
Source International Soil and Water Conservation Research;3,(2015) Pagination 282,290