| Abstract: | Soil erosion is one form of land degradation, which is caused by the interacting effects of numerous factors such as biophysical characteristics and socio‐economic condition of a particular watershed. Previous erosion studies focused on the use of soil erosion models (e.g. USLE, EUROSEM, SLEMSA etc.), which have been developed under local conditions (e.g. United States, Europe, Africa, etc) and mostly use only biophysical factors as inputs to the models. In this study, a methodology that integrates both biophysical and socio‐economic aspects into a framework for soil erosion hazard assessment using principal component analysis (PCA) is described. The analysis is done at the land unit level. With the particular conditions of the study area that is characterized by Inceptisols and Alfisols soil types, nine different land uses with mixed vegetation and forest area dominant in the steep slope, high annual rainfall (>2500 mm), high population with mostly low income and low education, were considered. These were used in formulating a soil erosion hazard index (EHI) equation which relates a number of key factors consisting of biophysical and socio‐economic variables, namely soil texture, slope steepness, land cover, soil conservation practices, income and farmers' knowledge. Weighting and scoring of these key factors were used to develop the EHI equation and to calculate an index value of erosion hazard for every land unit. Results indicate that more than 60% of the area has erosion hazard ranging from moderate to very severe, and most of the land units with high erosion hazard were found at the mountain areas. It was also found that erosion hazard was severe in areas with high silt content, followed by high rainfall and steep slope, low crop cover without any soil conservation practices coupled with lack of awareness on soil erosion and low income. The key factors identified and level of erosion hazard obtained can be used to formulate conservation measures in critical areas which are prone to soil erosion. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
