Abstract
Water erosion in the form of sheet and rill erosion and lack of good land management practices lead to accelerated land degradation. Rill erosion is a major contributor to sediment detachment and transport from agricultural fields leading to both on-site and off-site effects of erosion. Farm-runoff drainage ditches have also contributed to the same effects. This chapter, thus, presents assessment results of rill erosion and farm ditches in the Lake Tana subbasin of the Blue Nile basin in order to understand their contribution to the overall soil loss. Monitoring the spatial and temporal rill erosion development on agricultural lands of 6, 15, and 300–500 m slope lengths has revealed the greater role of tillage-induced surface roughness, soil texture, slope shape and length, and barriers along the topo-sequence of the catchment. Similarly, quantitative assessment of the farm-runoff drainage ditches has made a clear picture that ditches serve as both a source of erosion and a sediment transport channel for the soil eroded from the inter-ditch areas. The changes in depth and width of ditches constructed on moderate to steep slopes vary between 8 and 20 mm, and 20 and 30 mm during two months rainfall period, respectively. Eroded sediment from inter-ditch areas is transported at a rate between 0.5 cm2 and 4.0 cm2 per meter of single ditch. This study indicated the role of rills and ditches for total soil loss and the importance of protecting and controlling both rill and ditch erosion without compromising the need to drain excess water.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aklilu A, de Graaf J (2006) Farmers’ views of soil erosion problems and their conservation knowledge at Beressa watershed, central highlands of Ethiopia. Agric Human Values 23:99–108
Berry L (2003) Land degradation in Ethiopia: its extent and impact. Commissioned by the GM with WB support
Constable M (1985) Ethiopian highland reclamation study (EHRS). Working Paper 24. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
de Graaff J (1996) The price of soil erosion. An economic evaluation of soil conservation and watershed development. Mansholt Studies, Wageningen Agricultural University
Desmet PJJ, Govers G (1997) Two-dimensional modelling of the within-field variation in rill and gully geometry and location related to topography. Catena 29:283–306
EPA (2003) Environmental policy of Ethiopia. Environmental Protection Authority, Addis Ababa
Favis-Mortlock DT (1998) A self-organising dynamic systems approach to the simulation of rill initiation and development on hillslopes. Computers and Geosciences 24:353–372
Favis-Mortlock DT, Boardman J, Parsons AJ, Lasceles B (2000) Emergence and erosion: a model for rill initiation and development. Hydrol Process 14:2173–2205
Flanagan DC, Nearing MA (1995) Water erosion prediction project: hillslope profile and watershed model documentation, National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory, West Lafayette, Indiana, Report No. 10
Gessesse GD, Hurni H (2011) Farmers’ participatory soil erosion assessemnt and soil conservation improvement. Application of local erosion indicators. Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI), Ethiopia, and Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, 2011. CDE–ESAPP
Gessesse GD, Fuchs H, Mansberger R, Klik A, Rieke-Zapp DH (2010) Assessment of erosion, deposition and rill development on irregular soil surfaces using close range digital photogrammetry. The Photogramm Rec 25(131):299–318
Gime’nez R, Govers G (2005) Flow detachment by concentrated flow on smooth and irregular beds. Soil Sci Soc Am J 66:1475–1483
Gomez JA, Nearing MA (2005) Runoff and sediment losses from rough and smooth soil surfaces in a laboratory experiment. Catena 59:253–266
Govers G, Takken T, Helming K (2000) Soil roughness and overland flow. Agronomie 20:131–146
Hagos F, Pender J, Gebreselassie N (1999) Land degradation and strategies for sustainable land management in the Ethiopian highlands: Tigray region. Socio-economic and Policy Research Working Paper, 25, International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya
Hellden U (1987) An Assessment of woody biomass, community forest land use and soil erosion in Ethiopia. Lund studies in geography, Ser. C. General mathematical and regional geography, No 14. Lund University Press, Sweden
Helming K (2001) Effect of dimension, size and resolution on roughness determination. Strasbourg book of Abstracts. International Symposium: The Significance of Soil Surface Characteristics in Soil Erosion, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France, 20-22th, September 2001, University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France
Herweg K (1996) Field manual for: assessment of current erosion damage. Soil Conservation Research Programme, Ethiopia and Centre for Development and Environment, University of Berne, Switzerland
Herweg K, Ludi E (1999) The performance of selected soil and water conservation measures-case studies from Ethiopia and Eritrea. Catena 36:99–114
Herweg K, Stillhardt B (1999) The variability of soil erosion in the highlands of Ethiopia and Eirtrea. Average and extreme erosion rates. SCRP, Research Report 42. University of Bern, Switzerland in Association with MOA, Ethiopia
Hurni H (1984) Soil conservation research project Ethiopia, Vol. 4, Third progress report (1981), University Bern and United Nations University
Hurni H (1985) Soil Conservation Manual for Ethiopia: a Field Manual for Conservation Implementation. Soil Conservation Research Project, Addis Ababa
Hurni H (1986) Guidelines for development agents on soil conservation in Ethiopia. CFSCDD, MOA, Addis Ababa
Hurni H (1993) Land degradation, famine, and land resource scenarios in Ethiopia. In: Pimental D (ed) World soil erosion and conservation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 27–61
Loch RJ (1996) Using rill-interrill comparisons to infer likely responses of erosion to slope length: implications for land management. Aust J Soil Res 34:489–502
Mancilla GA, Chen S, McCool DK (2005) Rill density prediction and flow velocity distributions on agricultural areas in the Pacific Northwest. Soil Till Res 84:54–66
Million A (1996) Traditional ditches in North Shewa, Ethiopian highlands. In: Reij C, Scoones I, & Toulmin C (eds) Sustaining the soil: indigenous soil and water conservation in Africa. London, pp 156–162
Mitiku H, Herweg K, Stillhardt B (2006) Sustainable land management-a new approach to soil and water conservation in Ethiopia. Mekelle, Ethiopia: land resources management and environmental protection department, Mekelle University, Bern, Switzerland: CDE, University of Bern, NCCR North-south, p 269
Moore ID, Burch GJ (1986) Modelling erosion and deposition: topographic effects. Transactions of the ASAE 29:1624–1640
Nyssen J, Poesen J, Mitiku H, Moeyersons J, Deckers J (2000) Tillage erosion on slopes with soil conservation structures in the Ethiopian highlands. Soil Till Res 57:115–127
Pfeifer C, Notenbaert A, Omolo A (2012) Similarity analysis for the Blue Nile Basin in the Ethiopian highlands. ILRI, Nairobi
Rejman J, Brodowski R (2005) Rill characteristics and sediment transport as a function of slope length during a storm event on loess soil. Earth Surf Process Landforms 30:231–239
Rieke-Zapp DH, Nearing MA (2005) Slope shape effects on erosion: a laboratory study. Soil Sci Soc Am J 69:1463–1471
Romero CC, Stroosnijder L, Baigorria GA (2007) Interrill and rill erodibility in the northern Andean Highlands. Catena 70:105–113
Taffa T (2002) Soil and water conservation for sustainable agriculture. Mega Publishing Enterprise, CTA
USDA (1995) Water erosion prediction project hillslope profile and watershed model documentation NSERL Report #10
Weldeamlak B (2003) Towards integrated watershed management in Highland Ethiopia. The Chemoga case study. PhD Thesis, Wageningen University and Research Centre
Weldeamlak B, Sterk G (2003) Assessment of soil erosion in cultivated fields using a survey methodology for rills in the Chemoga watershed, Ethiopia. Agric Ecosyst Environ 97:81–93
Yonas G, Gizaw D, Tegenu A (Unpublished) Assessment of traditional ditches for water harvesting potentials around Debrebirhan. 2006/2007 Progress Report of Debre Birhan Agricultural research Center
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) within the North–South-Dialogue Scholarship program for the author’s PhD study grant and the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) through the Eastern and Southern Africa Partnership Programme (ESAPP) for financing Q505 project. I would like to express our deepest gratitude to the farmers in the study area who actively participated in the process and contributed innovative ideas.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gessesse, G. (2014). Assessment of Soil Erosion in the Blue Nile Basin. In: Melesse, A., Abtew, W., Setegn, S. (eds) Nile River Basin. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02720-3_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02720-3_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02719-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02720-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)