Abstract
Soil erosion is a very complex natural process that refers to the detachment and transportation of topsoil from the land surface by natural agents like water, wind, and others. This process has an effect on the environment including loss of soil fertility, reduction of water bodies' depth (lakes, ponds, reservoirs, etc.), increase in water turbidity, flood hazard problems, etc. Identifying the erosion hotspot areas using different techniques is an essential tool for sustainable natural resources management. This study focusses on the mapping of soil erosion-prone areas of Ribb watershed, Upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia. This study aimed to identify the erosion of hotspot areas for the setting of effective soil and conservation strategies. Different soil erosion contributing factors, viz. Slope, land use, soil, rainfall, and stream power index, were integrated on ArcGIS 10.3 environment for determining the erosion-prone areas. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) technique was used to develop erosion hotspot areas using thematic layers pair-wise comparison tool. The weights for each thematic layer and feature were decided based on the expert's judgment and review of the literature. Hence, the results of soil erosion map showed very high, high, moderate, low, and very low vulnerability to erosion with areal coverage of 7.04%, 20.40%, 17.60%, 32.01%, and 22.95%, respectively. The findings of this study will help decision-makers to plan and carry out effective soil and water conservation practices in highly vulnerable areas to soil erosion. MCDA was found as a basic tool for determining erosion-prone areas coupled with GIS. The spatial distribution map indicated that most of the erosion-prone areas were found in northern, eastern, and northeastern parts of the watershed due to the steep slope and agricultural practice which needs integrated soil and water conservation practice.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aher P, Adinarayana J, Gorantiwar SD (2013) Prioritization of watersheds using multi-criteria evaluation through the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process. Agric Eng Int CIGR J 15(1):11–18
Andualem TG, Gebremariam B (2015) Impact of land use land cover change on stream flow and sediment yield: a case study of Gilgel Abay Watershed, Lake Tana Sub-Basin, Ethiopia. Int J Technol Enhanc Emerg Eng Res 3(11):28–42
Andualem TG, Belay G, Guadie A (2018) Land use change detection using remote sensing technology. J Earth Sci Climate Change 9:496
Asmamaw LB, Mohammed AA (2019) Identification of soil erosion hotspot areas for sustainable land management in the Gerado catchment, North-eastern Ethiopia. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment 13:306–317
Assefa TT, Jha MK, Tilahun SA, Yetbarek E, Adem AA, Wale A (2015) Identification of erosion hotspot area using GIS and MCE technique for koga watershed in the upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia. Am J Environ Sci 11(4):245
Bello-Pineda J, Ponce-Hernández R, Liceaga-Correa MA (2006) Incorporating GIS and MCE for suitability assessment modeling of coral reef resources. Environ Monit Assess 114(1–3):225–256
Burstein F, Holsapple CW (eds) (2008) Handbook on decision support systems 2: variations. Springer, Berlin
Chang TJ, Bayes TD (2013) Development of erosion hotspots for a watershed. J Irrig Drain Eng 139(12):1011–1017
Chang TJ, Zhou H, Guan Y (2016) Applications of erosion hotspots for watershed investigation in the Appalachian Hills of the United States. J Irrig Drain Eng 142(3):04015057
Chicas SD, Omine K, Ford JB (2016) Identifying erosion hotspots and assessing communities' perspectives on the drivers, underlying causes and impacts of soil erosion in Toledo's Rio Grande Watershed: Belize. Appl Geogr 68:57–67
Chowdary VM, Chakraborthy D, Jeyaram A, Murthy YK, Sharma JR, Dadhwal VK (2013) Multi-criteria decision-making approach for watershed prioritization using analytic hierarchy process technique and GIS. Water Resour Manag 27(10):3555–3571
Ethiopian Highlands Reclamation Study (EHRS) (1984) Annual research report (1983–1984)
Gemitzi A, Petalas C, Tsihrintzis VA, Pisinaras V (2006) Assessment of groundwater vulnerability to pollution: a combination of GIS, fuzzy logic and decision-making techniques. Environ Geol 49(5):653–673
Hawando T (1995) The survey of the soil and water resources of Ethiopia. UNU/Toko
Hurni H (1985) Erosion–productivity–conservation systems in Ethiopia. In: Paper presented at the 4th international conference on soil conservation, 3–9 November 1985, Maracacy, Venezuela
Hurni H (1988) Degradation and conservation of the resources in the Ethiopian highlands. Mountain Res Dev 8(2/3):123–130
Hurni H (1989) Applied soil conservation research in Ethiopia. In: Thomas DB (ed) Soil and water conservation in Kenya. University of Nairobi, Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA), Nairobi, Kenya, pp 5–21
Kruger HJ, Fantaw B, Michael YG, Kajela K (1996) Creating an inventory of indigenous soil and water conservation measures in Ethiopia. AGRIS: International Information System for The Agricultural Science and Technology. Earthscan Publications Ltd.
Jaiswal RK, Ghosh NC, Galkate RV, Thomas T (2015) Multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for watershed prioritization. Aquatic Procedia 4:1553–1560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aqpro.2015.02.201
Lal R (1994) Soil erosion research methods. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Leskinen P, Kangas J (2005) Multi-criteria natural resource management with preferentially dependent decision criteria. J Environ Manag 77(3):244–251
Lulseged T, Vlek PLG (2005) GIS-based landscape characterization to assess soil erosion and its delivery potential in the highlands of northern Ethiopia. In: Proceedings of the 1st international conference on remote sensing and geoinformation processing in the assessment and monitoring of land degradation and desertification (ICRS ‘05), pp 7–9.
Mekonnen M, Melesse AM (2011) Soil erosion mapping and hotspot area identification using GIS and remote sensing in northwest Ethiopian highlands, near Lake Tana. In: Melesse AM (ed) Nile River Basin. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 207–224
Mhiret DA, Dagnew DC, Assefa TT, Tilahun SA, Zaitchik BF, Steenhuis TS (2019) Erosion hotspot identification in the sub-humid Ethiopian highlands. Ecohydrol Hydrobiol 19(1):146–154
Morgan RPC (2009) Soil erosion and conservation. John Wiley and sons, Hoboken
Pal SC, Shit M (2017) Application of RUSLE model for soil loss estimation of Jaipanda watershed, West Bengal. Spat Inf Ress 25(3):399–409
Pal SC, Chakrabortty R (2019) Modeling of water-induced surface soil erosion and the potential risk zone prediction in a sub-tropical watershed of Eastern India. Model Earth Syst Environ 5(2):369–393
Saaty TL (1980) The analytic hierarchy process. McGraw-Hill, New York
Wischmeier WH, Smith DD (1978) Predicting rainfall erosion losses: a guide to conservation planning. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service, Handbook No.537. United States Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, p 58
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
There is no conflict of interest between authors.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Andualem, T.G., Hagos, Y.G., Kefale, A. et al. Soil erosion-prone area identification using multi-criteria decision analysis in Ethiopian highlands. Model. Earth Syst. Environ. 6, 1407–1418 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-020-00757-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-020-00757-2