Abstract:
Soil erosion is one of the critical environmental and health issues faced by humans.
Various natural and anthropogenic factors contribute to accelerate soil erosion, which
in turn causes soil degradation. Land use land cover (LULC) changes in catchments is
one of the major factors that contribute to man-made soil erosion. The prime aim of this
study is to estimate the impact of LULC changes on total soil loss in the Madu Ganga
estuary area between 2002-2022. Madu Ganga estuary is a highly urbanized area with
large scale land use land cover alterations by human activities. Soil erosion modeling is
helpful for predicting soil loss in highly urbanized landscapes. The Integrated Valuation
of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model is introduced by Stanford University
for the valuation of ecosystem services and goods. Through this, InVEST Sediment
Delivery Ratio (SDR) model is developed to assess sediment delivery into a watershed
area. The Modeling approach was developed under the Geographic Information System
(GIS) based environment for the past 20 years with 5-year intervals. Estimated mean
total soil loss of the Madu Ganga watershed area for years 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, and
2022 were 1.17, 1.61, 2.00, 6.56, and 6.61 t ha-1 year-1 respectively. Pearson correlation
test was performed to build a relationship between vegetation cover and total soil loss in
the area. The results of the analysis indicated a negative correlation (r= -0.014 p=0.778)
between vegetation cover and total soil loss in the area. The findings of the study
indicated that, during the past 20 years LULC changes have contributed to accelerate
the soil loss of the area. Further the findings of the study emphasize the necessity of the
implementation of LULC plans and policies to reduce soil loss in the watershed area.
