ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Soil Processes
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1495923
This article is part of the Research TopicSoil and Water Loss and Environmental EffectsView all 10 articles
Assessing Soil Erosion Potential for Prioritization of Land Risk Area in the Sala Watershed of Ari Zone, South Ethiopia
Provisionally accepted
- Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia
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Soil erosion has led to land degradation, which affects the environmental and economic sustainability of agricultural land systems. This study aims to assess the annual soil loss potential to prioritize land risk areas in the Sala watershed for conservation planning. Soil sampling and topographic data were the primary sources of data.The secondary sources were satellite imagery and meteorological data. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model integrated with GIS and remote sensing (RS) techniques was used to formulate optimal soil erosion management plans and assess erosion hotspot areas in the study area. The results showed that the distribution of annual soil loss ranged from 1 to 1,875 t/ha/year, and the mean annual soil loss was 312.6 t/ha/year. The findings also revealed that the watershed was classified as having low soil erosion rates (1-162 t ha/year) (31.91%), moderate soil erosion rates (162-405 t ha/year) (39.67%), high soil erosion rates (405-805 t/ha/year) (20.78%), and very high soil erosion rates (800-1875 t/ha/year) (7.64%). 28.42% of the watershed was classified as having high to very high erosion severity, primarily found on steeper slopes and in areas with inappropriate land use practices. In the Sala watershed, soil and water conservation measures have important implications for improving soil fertility and productivity. Thus, effective land management planning should be implemented to achieve sustainable agricultural land use in the study watershed area.
Keywords: Soil erosion, RUSLE, Land risk, prioritization, and Sala watershed
Received: 13 Sep 2024; Accepted: 17 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Delki, Bayu and Bedane. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Woldeyes Debebe Delki, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia
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