Defining required forest area for protection soil from erosion in Vietnam: a GIS-based application
Main Article Content
Abstract
Abstract. Forests play an important role in reducing erosion. In Vietnam, destroying natural forests in mountainous areas has caused serious environmental problems for sustainable development. Required forest areas for protection of soils from erosion in Vietnam are defined in this study. An algorithm of defining required forest area for soil erosion prevention is based on a comparison of soil loss prediction and its threshold of 10 ton ha-1yr-1 (soil loss tolerance) within the GIS environment. Soil loss is predicted from rainfall erosivity index, slope, porosity and vegetation structures in which rainfall index is calculated from 30 year monthly rainfall data of 158 weather stations. A map of erosion risk for Vietnam illustrating potential to erode soil was generated from slope, rainfall index and soil porosity by using spatial interpolation and map algebra techniques in ArcGIS. Vegetation index, a function of canopy closure, height, ground cover and litter cover, is classified into four groups. Required forest areas for protection of soil from erosion are defined from an erosion risk map in comparison with categories of vegetation index. An area (a raster cell) requires forest (natural forest or the others) when its erosion risk is higher than the vegetation index.
Keywords: Soil Erosion, GIS, Required Forest Area, Erosion Risk Map, Soil Loss.References
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[3] D. Pimentel, N. Kounang, Ecology of Soil Erosion in Ecosystems. Ecosystems, 1 (5), (1998) 416.
[4] D.E. Walling, B.W.Webb, Patterns of Sediment Yield. In Morgan, R.P.C. (3rd ed.), Soil Erosion and Conservation, Blackwell Publishing, 1983, pp. 1-10.
[5] R.P.C. Morgan, Soil Erosion and Conservation. Third Edition, Blackwell Publishing, 2005.
[6] R.C Sidle, A.D. Ziegler, J.N. Negishi, A.R. Nik, R.Siew, F. Turkelboom, Erosion processes in steep terrain-Truths, myths, and uncertainties related to forest management in Southeast Asia. Forest Ecology and Management 224 (2006) 199.
[7] S.D. Angima, D.E. Stott, O’Neill, M.K., Ong, C.K., Weesies, G.A.., Soil erosion prediction using RUSLE for central Kenyan highland conditions. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 97(2003) 295.
[8] W.H. Wischmeier, D.D. Smith, Predicting rainfall erosion soil losses from cropland east of the Rocky Mountain: A guide for selection of practices for soil and water conservation. USDA, Agriculture Handbook, 1965, No. 282.
[9] R.P.C. Morgan, D.D.V. Morgan, H.J. Finney, A predictive model for the assessment of soil erosion risk. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research 30 (1984) 245.
[10] R.P.C. Morgan, A Simple Approach to Soil Loss Prediction: A Revised Morgan-Morgan-Finney Model. Catena 44 (2001) 305.
[11] D.A. Woolhiser, R.E. Smith, D.C. Goodrich, , KINEROS: a kinematic runoff and erosion model: documentation and user manual. USDA Agricultural Research Service ARS-77, 1990.
[12] V.V. Quynh, N.N. Lan, Capability to protect soil of different vegetation covers in Ham Yen, Tuyen Quang. Report for Vietnam - Swedish Cooperation Program, SIDA, 1996.
[13] K.G. Renard, G.R. Foster, G.A. Weesies, D.K. McCool, D.C. Yoder, Prediction soil erosion by water: A guide to conservation planning with the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE). USDA, Agriculture HandBook, No. 703. (1997)
[14] D. Lu, G. Li, Valladares, G.S., and Batistella, M., Mapping soil erosion risk in Rondônia, Brazilian Amazonia: using RUSLE, remote sensing and GIS. Land Degradation and Development 15 (2004.) 499.
[15] A. Yuksel, R. Gundogan, A.E. Akay, Using the Remote Sensing and GIS Technology for Erosion Risk Mapping of Kartalkaya Dam Watershed in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Sensors, 8 (2008) 4851.
[16] G. Wang, G. Goerge, S. Fang, A. Alan, Mapping multiple variables for predicting soil loss by geostatistical methods with TM images and a slope map. Photogrammetric engineering and remote sensing, 69 (8) (2003) 889.
[17] Y.L. Bissonnais, C. Montier, M. Jamagne, J. Daroussin, D. King, Mapping Erosion Risk for Cultivated Soil in France. Catena 46 (2001) 207.
[18] A. Lufafa, M.M. Tenywa, M. Isabirye, M.J.G. Majaliwa, P.L. Woomer, Prediction of Soil Erosion in a Lae Victoria Basin Catchment using a GIS-based Universal Soil Loss Model. Agricultural Systems 76 (2002) 883.
[19] R.B. Kheir, O. Cerdan, C. Abdallah, Regional Soil Erosion Risk Mapping in Lebanon. Geomophology, 82, 347 (2006)359.
[20] X.Y. Qing, S.X. Mei, K.X. Bin, P. Jian, C.Y. Long, Adapting the RUSLE and GIS to Model Soil Erosion Risk in a Mountains Karst Watershed, Gouzhou Province, China. Environmental Monitoring and Assessement, 141 (2008) 275.
[21] N.N. Lung, V.D. Hai, Research on scientific foundation of technical economic solutions for planning and designing watershed, upstream protective forests, and coastal mitigating storm forests. Report for National Project No. K03-09, Ha Noi, 1995.
[22] P.V. Dien, Water retention capability of some vegetation types in protection areas of Hoa Binh hydropower plant. Ph.D Dissertation, Forestry University, Vietnam, 2006.
[23] FPD, 2008. Vietnam Annual Forest Cover, 2007. Forest Protection Department (FPD), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, http://www.kiemlam.org.vn
[24] VEPA, 2006. Environmental Report of Vietnam, 2006. Vietnam Environment Protection Agency.
[25] N.W. Hudson, Soil Conservation. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1977.
[26] ESRI, 2008. ArcGIS Spatial Analysis, www.esri.com/spatialanalyst.
[27] D.M. Theobald, GIS Concepts and ArcGIS Methods. 1st Edition, Conservation and Planning Technologies Publisher, USA. 2003, pp. 238-266.
[28] P.M. Bartier, C.P. Keller, Multivariate interpolation to incorporate thematic surface data using inverse distance weighting (IDW). Computers and Geosciences 22 (7) (1996) 795.
[29] W.H. Wischmeier, D.D. Smith, Predicting rainfall erosion soil losses: A guide to conservation planning. USDA, Agriculture Handbook, 1978, No. 537.
[30] V.V. Quynh, N.H. Tuat, H.Q. Khai, Forest Criteria for Soil Conservation. Report for Project Funded by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 1999.