Soil Erosion across Scales: Assessing Its Sources of Variation in Sahelian Landscapes under Semi-Arid Climate

Lawani Adjadi Mounirou, Roland Yonaba, Fowé Tazen, Gebiaw T. Ayele (), Zaher Mundher Yaseen, Harouna Karambiri and Hamma Yacouba
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Lawani Adjadi Mounirou: Laboratoire Eaux, Hydro-Systèmes et Agriculture (LEHSA), Institut International d’Ingénierie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement (2iE), Rue de la Science, P.O. Box 594, Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso
Roland Yonaba: Laboratoire Eaux, Hydro-Systèmes et Agriculture (LEHSA), Institut International d’Ingénierie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement (2iE), Rue de la Science, P.O. Box 594, Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso
Fowé Tazen: Laboratoire Eaux, Hydro-Systèmes et Agriculture (LEHSA), Institut International d’Ingénierie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement (2iE), Rue de la Science, P.O. Box 594, Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso
Gebiaw T. Ayele: Australian River Institute and School of Engineering, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia
Zaher Mundher Yaseen: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
Harouna Karambiri: Laboratoire Eaux, Hydro-Systèmes et Agriculture (LEHSA), Institut International d’Ingénierie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement (2iE), Rue de la Science, P.O. Box 594, Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso
Hamma Yacouba: Laboratoire Eaux, Hydro-Systèmes et Agriculture (LEHSA), Institut International d’Ingénierie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement (2iE), Rue de la Science, P.O. Box 594, Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: Soil erosion varies in space and time. As the contributing surface area increases, heterogeneity effects are amplified, inducing scale effects. In the present study, soil erosion processes as affected by the observation scale and the soil surface conditions are assessed. An experimental field scale setup of 18 plots (1–150 m 2 ) with different soil surface conditions (bare and degraded, cultivated) and slopes (0.75–4.2%) are used to monitor soil losses between 2010 to 2018 under natural rainfall. The results showed that soil loss rates range between 2.5 and 19.5 t.ha −1 under cultivated plots and increase to 12–45 t.ha −1 on bare and degraded soils, which outlines the control of soil surface conditions on soil erosion. At a larger scale (38 km 2 ), soil losses are estimated at 2.2–4.5 t.ha −1 , highlighting the major contribution of scale. The scale effect is likely caused by the redistribution of sediments in the drainage network. These findings outline the nature and contribution of the emerging and dominant soil erosion processes at larger scales. At the plot scale, however, diffuse erosion remains dominant, since surface runoff is laminar and sediment transport capacity is limited, resulting in lower soil erosion rates.

Keywords: surface runoff; soil erosion; soil surface conditions; scale effect; Sahel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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