BackgroundAssessment of soil loss rates is crucial to sustainably enhance the benefits of land resources and diminish the adverse impacts of land degradation thereby areas requiring immediate soil erosion management practices can be identified. The study aimed to examine the impacts of land cover dynamics on the spatiotemporal patterns of erosion hotspots. RUSLE factors were produced using GIS and remote sensing techniques.ResultsThe RUSLE model adapted to Ethiopian conditions was run for 2004 and 2014 where input data layers were overlaid. The results of the model showed clear patterns of changes characterized by gradual shifting of one erosion soil loss severity class into next higher class. There was a net increase in the total soil loss largely under the very high, low and very low soil loss severity classes by 8%, 21% and 9% despite a decline in other severity classes, respectively. It also revealed that more than two-third of the catchment has experienced soil losses rates higher than the tolerable value reported for Ethiopia over which agriculturists should be concerned.ConclusionsTherefore, the observed soil loss rate and sediment yield in the study catchment would lead to further ecological deterioration unless site-specific participatory watershed management practices are employed.

中文翻译：

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土地利用/覆盖动态对埃塞俄比亚西北高地农业流域土壤侵蚀潜力的影响

背景土壤流失率的评估对于可持续地提高土地资源的效益和减少土地退化的不利影响至关重要，从而可以确定需要立即进行土壤侵蚀管理实践的地区。该研究旨在检查土地覆盖动态对侵蚀热点时空模式的影响。RUSLE 因子是使用 GIS 和遥感技术产生的。结果适应埃塞俄比亚条件的 RUSLE 模型在 2004 年和 2014 年运行，其中输入数据层被覆盖。该模型的结果显示了清晰的变化模式，其特征是一种侵蚀土壤流失严重程度逐渐转变为下一个更高的等级。在非常高、低和非常低的土壤流失严重程度等级下，土壤流失总量净增加了 8%，尽管其他严重性等级分别下降了 21% 和 9%。它还揭示了超过三分之二的流域的土壤流失率高于埃塞俄比亚报告的可容忍值，农业工作者应该关注这一点。结论因此，研究流域中观察到的土壤流失率和沉积物产量将导致进一步的生态恶化，除非采用特定地点的参与式流域管理做法。