Serbaji, M.M.; Bouaziz, M.; Weslati, O. Soil Water Erosion Modeling in Tunisia Using RUSLE and GIS Integrated Approaches and Geospatial Data. Land2023, 12, 548.
Serbaji, M.M.; Bouaziz, M.; Weslati, O. Soil Water Erosion Modeling in Tunisia Using RUSLE and GIS Integrated Approaches and Geospatial Data. Land 2023, 12, 548.
Serbaji, M.M.; Bouaziz, M.; Weslati, O. Soil Water Erosion Modeling in Tunisia Using RUSLE and GIS Integrated Approaches and Geospatial Data. Land2023, 12, 548.
Serbaji, M.M.; Bouaziz, M.; Weslati, O. Soil Water Erosion Modeling in Tunisia Using RUSLE and GIS Integrated Approaches and Geospatial Data. Land 2023, 12, 548.
Abstract
Soil erosion is one of the most important environmental problems which can have various negative consequences, such as land degradation affecting the sustainable development and the agricultural production, especially for developing countries like Tunisia. Moreover, soil erosion is a major problem around the world because of its effects on soil fertility by nutriment loss and siltation in water bodies. Apart from this, soil erosion by water is the most serious type of land loss in several regions both locally and globally. This study evaluated regional soil erosion risk through the derivation of appropriate factors, using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), which was applied to establish a soil erosion risk map of the whole Tunisian territory and to identify the vulnerable areas of the country. RUSLE model take into account all the factors playing a major role in erosion processes, namely the erodibility of soils, topography, land use, rainfall erosivity and anti-erosion farming practices. The equation is thus implemented under Geographic Information System (GIS) “Arc GIS Desktop”. The results indicated that Tunisia has a serious risk of soil water erosion, showing that 6.43% of the total area of the country is affected by a very high soil loss rate estimated at more than 30 t/ha/year and 4.20% are affected by high mean annual soil loss ranging from 20 to 30 t/ha/year. The most eroded areas were identified in west southern, central and western parts of the country. The spatial erosion map can be used as a decision support document to guide decision-makers towards better land management and provide the opportunity to develop management strategies for soil erosion prevention and control in the global scale of Tunisia.
Keywords
RUSLE model; GIS; soil water erosion; integrated approach; sustainable development; land degradation; vulnerable areas; soil loss rate
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Soil Science
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
