Assessment of soil erosion in the Boussellam watershed, Algeria: Integrated approach using the Erosion Potential Method (EPM) and GIS-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Assessment of soil erosion in the Boussellam watershed, Algeria: Integrated approach using the Erosion Potential Method (EPM) and GIS

Published:2024 Issue:1 Volume:104 Page:113-128
ISSN:0350-3593
Container-title:Glasnik Srpskog geografskog drustva
language:en
Short-container-title:Glas Srp geogr drus

Author:

Benaiche Morad¹^ORCID,Mokhtari Elhadj²^ORCID,Berghout Ali²^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Laboratory of City, Environment, Hydraulic and Sustainable Development, CEHSD, Faculty of Technology, University of M’sila, Ichebilia, M’sila, Algeria

2. Laboratory of Water, Environment and Renewable Energies, Faculty of Technology, University of M’sila, Ichebilia, M’sila, Algeria

Abstract

Land degradation is a growing concern, exacerbated by recent climate change. Water erosion emerges as a crucial tool to address this issue. This study focuses on estimating soil loss from water erosion in the Boussellam valley watershed, a part of the ex-pansive Soummam basin in northeastern Algeria, characterized by a semi-humid to humid climate. Covering an expanse of 4,301 km2 with a perimeter of 420 Km, the basin's assessment incorporates often-overlooked factors such as temperature. Utilizing Geographic In-formation System (GIS) in conjunction with GAVRILOVIC's EPM (Erosion Potential Method) model, erosion projections for the year 2022 have been generated. The findings reveal that the entire Boussellam watershed experiences an average erosion rate of 8.50 tonnes per hectare annually. However, it is evident that the current protective measures implemented by decision-makers are suboptimal. To pinpoint the most vulnerable areas, GIS was employed to map and subsequently categorize them into five levels of erosion intensity: low, moderate, medium, high, and very high. These detailed maps will enable more precise and tailored interventions by decision-makers to effectively safeguard the regions most impacted by erosion.

Publisher

National Library of Serbia

Reference35 articles.

1. Abdulwahab, F. (2019). Building a model for the risk of water erosion in Kifri Basin by the use of fuzzy logic. Journal of Tikrit University for Humanitie, 26(9), 281-257.

2. Belasri, A., & Lakhouili, A. (2016). Estimation of soil erosion risk using the universal soil loss equation (USLE) and geo-information technology in Oued El Makhazine Watershed, Morocco. Journal of Geographic Information System, 8(1), 98. https://doi.org/10.4236/jgis.2016.81010

3. Benchettouh, A., Kouri, L., & Jebari, S. (2017). Spatial estimation of soil erosion risk using RUSLE/GIS techniques and practices conservation suggested for reducing soil erosion in Wadi Mina watershed (northwest, Algeria). Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 10, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-017-2875-6

4. Benselama, O., Mazour, M., Hasbaia, M., Djoukbala, O., & Mokhtari, S. (2018). Prediction of water erosion sensitive areas in Mediterranean watershed, a case study of Wadi El Maleh in north-west of Algeria. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 190(12), Article 735. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-018-7117-1

5. Blinkov, I., & Kostadinov, S. (2010). Applicability of various erosion risk assessment methods for engineering purposes. Conference BALWOIS 2010. https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.4762.7849