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Dynamics of Soil Erosion as Influenced by Watershed Management Practices: A Case Study of the Agula Watershed in the Semi-Arid Highlands of Northern Ethiopia

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Abstract

Since the past two decades, watershed management practices such as construction of stone bunds and establishment of exclosures have been widely implemented in the semi-arid highlands of northern Ethiopia to curb land degradation by soil erosion. This study assessed changes in soil erosion for the years 1990, 2000 and 2012 as a result of such watershed management practices in Agula watershed using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation factors were computed in a geographic information system for 30 × 30 m raster layers using spatial data obtained from different sources. The results revealed significant reduction in soil loss rates by about 55 % from about 28 to 12 t ha−1 per year in 1990–2000 and an overall 64 % reduction from 28 to 10 t ha−1 per year in 1990–2012. This change in soil loss is attributed to improvement in surface cover and stone bund practices, which resulted in the decrease in mean C and P-factors, respectively, by about 19 % and 34 % in 1990–2000 and an overall decrease in C-factor by 29 % in 1990–2012. Considerable reductions in soil loss were observed from bare land (89 %), followed by cultivated land (56 %) and shrub land (49 %). Furthermore, the reduction in soil loss was more pronounced in steeper slopes where very steep slope and steep slope classes experienced over 70 % reduction. Validation of soil erosion estimations using field observed points showed an overall accuracy of 69 %, which is fairly satisfactory. This study demonstrated the potential of watershed management efforts to bring remarkable restoration of degraded semi-arid lands that could serve as a basis for sustainable planning of future developments of areas experiencing severe land degradation due to water erosion.

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Acknowledgments

The authors highly acknowledge ICRAF-Ethiopia staff and ICRAF-Irish Aid Project “Enhancing Integrated Watershed Management with Climate Smart Agriculture” for providing information and assistance during primary data collection from Agula watershed. Special thanks to Agula watershed community and office of Agriculture and Rural Development for their support during our field work. The two anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged for their valuable comments on the earlier version of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, 1390 Hamasaka, Tottori , 680-0001, Japan

    Ayele Almaw Fenta & Hiroshi Yasuda

  2. Department of Land Resources Management and Environmental Protection, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia

    Ayele Almaw Fenta

  3. Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-cho Minami, Tottori , 680-8553, Japan

    Katsuyuki Shimizu

  4. International Platform for Dryland Research and Education, Tottori University, 1390 Hamasaka, Tottori , 680-0001, Japan

    Nigussie Haregeweyn

  5. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Aklilu Negussie

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  1. Ayele Almaw Fenta
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Correspondence to Ayele Almaw Fenta.

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Fenta, A.A., Yasuda, H., Shimizu, K. et al. Dynamics of Soil Erosion as Influenced by Watershed Management Practices: A Case Study of the Agula Watershed in the Semi-Arid Highlands of Northern Ethiopia. Environmental Management 58, 889–905 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0757-4

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