Soil loss and erosion potential estimation of Jhimruk watershed, Nepal

Soil erosion will have impact in the land productivity, water resource and watershed as a whole. The loss of top soil leads to land degradation and for an agrarian area like Jhimruk which also known as The rice bowl of Nepal, it would be a huge consequence on the land productivity. Therefore, it is essential to know the spatial distribution of the areas susceptible to the degradation and assess the erosion potential to plan effective mitigation measures. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model was used in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to estimate the soil loss of the Jhimruk watershed, Lumbini Province, Nepal. This research aimed to calculate the erosional soil loss status of the local governments lying inside the watershed. For this, remote sensing data obtained from various sources were used to generate the factor maps to calculate the soil loss through RUSLE. A 13-year mean annual precipitation data from the 8 meteorological stations in and around the watershed were used. The mean annual soil loss of the watershed was found to be 13.4 tons per hectare per year (t/ha/yr). However, the soil loss was calculated to be as high as 182 t/ha/yr. 68.82% of the total area of the watershed lie under very low erosion class and thus, have low conservation priority. On the other hand 7.73% of the total area of the watershed lie under extremely high erosion class and, thus, have a high conservation priority class. The mean erosion rate from the barren land was found to be highest (23.179 t/ha/yr) followed by agricultural (21.40 t/ha/yr) and forest area had the lowest erosion rate, i.e., 7.90 t/ha/yr.

Automated summary

Soil erosion has significant impacts on land productivity, water resources, and the entire watershed. In an agrarian region like Jhimruk, known as the rice bowl of Nepal, the loss of top soil can have severe consequences for land productivity. Therefore, it is important to identify areas at risk of degradation and assess erosion potential to plan effective mitigation measures. This study used the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to estimate soil loss in the Jhimruk watershed, Lumbini Province, Nepal.