Abstract:
This study modeled soil erosion between January 2016 and September 2018
for land management in Golole catchment. The Revised Universal Soil Loss
Equation (RUSLE) constituting the main agents of soil erosion was modeled
in a Geographical Information System (GIS) environment. The objective of
this study was to model soil erosion for land management in the ungauged
Golole catchment. The Golole catchment soil erosion map reveals that within
the catchment the soil loss was not homogeneous and erosion risk was not
the same. The catchment experiences an annual mean score soil loss rate of
279 t/ha that is above the recommended maximum allowable annual soil loss
rate of 4 t/ha. The catchment’s soil loss rate is described as high and severe
representing 70% and 30% of landmass respectively. This study found the
need to decelerate the above soil loss rates to moderate and low levels by
adopting soil erosion mitigation measures such as stone contour ridges, manure, strip cropping, and terracing in the cultivated areas and controlled
grazing in the lowland rangeland. The study strongly felt the need to protect
the forest reserve from tree cutting and further human encroachment. This
study concludes that there is the need for further research 1) in the forest reserve areas that showed the greatest rates of soil erosion menace to determine
the underlying causes, and 2) to assess the temporal trends of the soil erosion
hazard using high-resolution data.
