Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
Abstract
Gully erosion affects land degradation, particularly in the semiarid reigns. Topographic thresholds are strongly affected by landuse change and destroy of vegetation. The objective of this study was to evaluate topographic thresholds of gully erosion in different landuse including agriculture (AG), fair rangeland (FR) and weak rangeland (WR) which carried out in Ghasreshirin, Kermanshah, Iran. The topographical parameters were measured in the field and relationship between gully catchment area and slope was analyzed for each landuse. The results revealed that some main topographic characteristics mainly cross-section, width, depth and gully branches length in the FR was significantly lower than in the AG and WR (p<0.05). Furthermore, analysis of gully threshold based on catchment area-slope showed that the critical area for gully formation in AG, FR and WR was 1300, 1689 and 1233 m2, respectively which was significantly lower in FR reducing by vegetation cover. The respective slope threshed was 1, 3 and 3 percent in AG, FR and WR. However, the affected area by gully erosion in AG, FR and WR was 12.4, 14.1 and 21%, respectively. The gully in the agricultural land was more dipper compared with other land uses. The volume of gully channels in FR was 3.4 and 2.2 times less than AG and WR, respectively. It is concluded that rangeland degradation and thereby removing vegetation attribute to severe gully erosion and consequently environmental problems such as soil carbon dioxide emission.
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