International Soil and Water Conservation Research最新文献

{"title":"Large-scale extraction of check dams and silted fields on the Chinese loess plateau using ensemble learning models","authors":"Yunfei Li ,&nbsp;Jianlin Zhao ,&nbsp;Ke Yuan ,&nbsp;Gebeyehu Taye ,&nbsp;Long Li","doi":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Check dams have been widely constructed in the Chinese Loess Plateau and has played an important role in controlling soil loss during last 70 years. However, the large-scale and automatic mapping of the check dams and the resulting silted fields are lacking. In this study, we present a novel methodological framework to extract silted fields and to estimate the location of the check dams at a pixel level in the Wuding River catchment by remote sensing and ensemble learning models. The random under-sampling method and 23 features were used to train and validate three ensemble learning models, namely Random Forest, Extreme Gradient Boosting and EasyEnsemble, based on a large number of samples. The established optimal model was then applied to the whole study area to map check dams and silted fields. Our results indicate that the imbalance ratio of the samples has a significant impact on the performance of the models. Validation of the results on the testing set show that the F1-score of silted fields of three models is higher than 0.75 at the pixel level. Finally, we produced a map of silted fields and check dams at 10 m-spatial resolution by the optimal model with an accuracy of ca. 90% at the object level. The proposed framework can be used for the large-scale and high-precision mapping of check dams and silted fields, which is of great significance for the monitoring and management of the dynamics of check dams and the quantitative evaluation of their eco-environmental benefits.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48622,"journal":{"name":"International Soil and Water Conservation Research","volume":"12 3","pages":"Pages 548-564"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095633923000862/pdfft?md5=91a8210b8b0c90dcdad056db29c99231&pid=1-s2.0-S2095633923000862-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135705877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Timely monitoring of soil water-salt dynamics within cropland by hybrid spectral unmixing and machine learning models","authors":"Ruiqi Du ,&nbsp;Junying Chen ,&nbsp;Youzhen Xiang ,&nbsp;Ru Xiang ,&nbsp;Xizhen Yang ,&nbsp;Tianyang Wang ,&nbsp;Yujie He ,&nbsp;Yuxiao Wu ,&nbsp;Haoyuan Yin ,&nbsp;Zhitao Zhang ,&nbsp;Yinwen Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Soil salinization and water scarcity are main restrictive factors for irrigated agriculture development in arid regions. Knowing dynamics of soil water and salt content is an important antecedent in remediating salinized soils and optimizing irrigation management. Previous studies mostly used remote sensing technologies to individually monitor water or salt content dynamics in agricultural areas. Their ability to asses different levels of crop water and salt management has been less explored. Therefore, how to extract effective diagnostic features from remote sensing images derived spectral information is crucial for accurately estimating soil water and salt content. In this study, Linear spectral unmixing method (LSU) was used to obtain the contribution of soil water and salt to each band spectrum (abundance), and endmember spectra from Sentinel-2 images. Calculating spectral indices and selecting optimal spectal combination were individually based on soil water and salt endmember spectra. The estimation models were constructed using six machine learning algorithms: BP Neural Network (BPNN), Support Vector Regression (SVR), Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR), Random Forest Regression (RFR), Gradient Boost Regression Tree (GBRT), and eXtreme Gradient Boosting tree (XGBoost). The results showed that the spectral indices calculated from endmember spectra were able to effectively characterize the response of crop spectral properties to soil water and salt, which circumvent spectral ambiguity induced by water-salt mixing. NDRE spectral index was a reliable indicator for estimating water and salt content, with determination coefficients (R²) being 0.55 and 0.57, respectively. Compared to other models, LSU-XGBoost model achieved the best performance. This model properly reflected the process of soil water-salt dynamics in farmland during crop growth period. This study provided new methods and ideas for soil water-salt estimation in dry irrigated agricultural areas, and provided decision support for governance of salinized land and optimal management of irrigation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48622,"journal":{"name":"International Soil and Water Conservation Research","volume":"12 3","pages":"Pages 726-740"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095633923000886/pdfft?md5=b79e9036b8b00c691dc51ed63684c49b&pid=1-s2.0-S2095633923000886-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135606451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gully erosion mapping susceptibility in a Mediterranean environment: A hybrid decision-making model","authors":"Sliman Hitouri ,&nbsp;Mohajane Meriame ,&nbsp;Ali Sk Ajim ,&nbsp;Quevedo Renata Pacheco ,&nbsp;Thong Nguyen-Huy ,&nbsp;Pham Quoc Bao ,&nbsp;Ismail ElKhrachy ,&nbsp;Antonietta Varasano","doi":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Gully erosion is one of the main natural hazards, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, destroying ecosystem service and human well-being. Thus, gully erosion susceptibility maps (GESM) are urgently needed for identifying priority areas on which appropriate measurements should be considered. Here, we proposed four new hybrid Machine learning models, namely weight of evidence -Multilayer Perceptron (MLP- WoE), weight of evidence –K Nearest neighbours (KNN- WoE), weight of evidence - Logistic regression (LR- WoE), and weight of evidence - Random Forest (RF- WoE), for mapping gully erosion exploring the opportunities of GIS tools and Remote sensing techniques in the El Ouaar watershed located in the Souss plain in Morocco. Inputs of the developed models are composed of the dependent (i.e., gully erosion points) and a set of independent variables. In this study, a total of 314 gully erosion points were randomly split into 70% for the training stage (220 gullies) and 30% for the validation stage (94 gullies) sets were identified in the study area. 12 conditioning variables including elevation, slope, plane curvature, rainfall, distance to road, distance to stream, distance to fault, TWI, lithology, NDVI, and LU/LC were used based on their importance for gully erosion susceptibility mapping. We evaluate the performance of the above models based on the following statistical metrics: Accuracy, precision, and Area under curve (AUC) values of receiver operating characteristics (ROC). The results indicate the RF- WoE model showed good accuracy with (AUC = 0.8), followed by KNN-WoE (AUC = 0.796), then MLP-WoE (AUC = 0.729) and LR-WoE (AUC = 0.655), respectively. Gully erosion susceptibility maps provide information and valuable tool for decision-makers and planners to identify areas where urgent and appropriate interventions should be applied.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48622,"journal":{"name":"International Soil and Water Conservation Research","volume":"12 2","pages":"Pages 279-297"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095633923000898/pdfft?md5=85b586c253627cfe49cfb9a3264f01b5&pid=1-s2.0-S2095633923000898-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135605563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Saltwater intrusion in the Po River Delta (Italy) during drought conditions: Analyzing its spatio-temporal evolution and potential impact on agriculture","authors":"Jian Luo ,&nbsp;Eugenio Straffelini ,&nbsp;Matteo Bozzolan ,&nbsp;Zicheng Zheng ,&nbsp;Paolo Tarolli","doi":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Saltwater intrusion along rivers is a complex process controlled by multiple factors and thus fluctuates with a highly nonlinear nature and time-varying characteristics. It is challenging to monitor saltwater intrusion. The objective of this study was to clarify the spatial-temporal variation of saltwater intrusion and its potential impact on agriculture in the Po River Delta (Italy). 2006 was the most severe year of saltwater intrusion in the period we considered. 2022 was even worse, but the data are still under processing. In this study, the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) and rescaled range (R/S) were used to identify the multi-time scales and change trends of the salinity and discharge in 2006. After that, the time-dependent intrinsic correlation (TDIC) was used to depict intrinsic relationships between salinity and discharge at different time scales. The results showed that discharge and salinity exhibited behaviours of positive long-range correlation during different periods. The temporal series of salinity and discharge was decomposed into six intrinsic mode functions (IMF) and residuals based on the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD). The sum of variance contribution rates of IMF1 (4 days), IMF2 (10 days), and IMF3 (12.1 days) of salinity was more than 75%. All measured TDICs have highlighted strong correlations between salinity and discharge. Furthermore, we used spatial interpolation techniques to map salinity data along rivers. This allowed the investigation of dynamic changes in saltwater intrusion patterns during periods of severe drought. Outcomes show a significant negative correlation between salinity and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), indicating that the study area's agricultural greening was affected by saltwater intrusion.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48622,"journal":{"name":"International Soil and Water Conservation Research","volume":"12 3","pages":"Pages 714-725"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095633923000904/pdfft?md5=5583a019c8091cbd98104268d9132618&pid=1-s2.0-S2095633923000904-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134993823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating soil erosion and runoff dynamics in a humid subtropic, low stream order, southern plains watershed from cultivation and solar farm development","authors":"Luis Mier-Valderrama ,&nbsp;Julianna Leal ,&nbsp;Humberto L. Perotto-Baldivieso ,&nbsp;Brent Hedquist ,&nbsp;Hector M. Menendez ,&nbsp;Ambrose Anoruo ,&nbsp;Benjamin L. Turner","doi":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Much work has been done to understand and improve soil and water conservation where agriculture has driven land use intensification. Less is known about soil- and water-related impacts from intensification driven by solar farming, especially at watershed-scales. Here we employed Hydrologic Engineering Center's Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) to model Pond Creek, a rural watershed in Texas, USA. Land use is primarily crop cultivation and secondarily pasture for cattle grazing. Presently, several industrial-scale projects are planned to convert ≈15–30% of Pond Creek from agriculture to solar farms. The model was parameterized using public data sources and information from local stakeholders, then calibrated to several historical precipitation events. Experiments were conducted by varying precipitation depth, duration, and land uses: native vegetation pre-cultivation (control), cultivation (current), current conditions with 15% solar farm conversion (solar), and current conditions with 30% solar farm conversion (solar <em>x</em>2). Shifting to solar farming led to significant increases in cumulative sediment load (+12%–30%), with no significant differences in peak discharge rate changes (+0.38%–4%). Comparison to soil loss tolerance values showed current and solar treatment erosion rates exceeded tolerance values between 0.17 and 2.29 tons per hectare and all treatments were significantly different than the native treatment. We discuss high leverage strategies applicable to solar farm development sites as well as watersheds where they reside. Accelerating demand for land for renewable energy such as solar farming warrants greater attention from the soil and water conservation community to anticipate and mitigate impacts across landscapes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48622,"journal":{"name":"International Soil and Water Conservation Research","volume":"12 2","pages":"Pages 432-445"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095633923000850/pdfft?md5=4487d8157877179e64e0b6b7855c94ac&pid=1-s2.0-S2095633923000850-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134994587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of the moisture content and dry density on the shear strength parameters of collapsing wall in hilly granite areas of South China","authors":"Xiaoyang Wang ,&nbsp;Xiaoxing Qin ,&nbsp;Jiahao Tan ,&nbsp;Linxi Yang ,&nbsp;Lixing Ou ,&nbsp;Xiaoqian Duan ,&nbsp;Yusong Deng","doi":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The changes in the mechanical properties of collapsing walls under the influence of natural factors in the hilly area of southern China need to be determined. We systematically studied the influence of the interaction of dry density ρ (1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 g/cm³) and moisture content ω (0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.25 g/g) on the stability of four soil layers in a collapsing wall. The soil cohesion decreased with increasing soil depth. The cohesion force initially increased and then decreased with increasing ω and increased with increasing ρ; the internal friction angle was mainly affected by ω and decreased with increasing ω. The cohesion could be used to effectively characterize the stability of the collapsing wall. The shear strength index was modeled based on interaction between the dry density and moisture content (R² &gt; 0.95). The optimal combination of moisture content and dry density was obtained, and the collapsing wall was in the most stable state at a moisture content of 0.12–0.19 g/g and a dry density of 1.40 g/cm³. Based on the analysis of the critical height and safety factor (FS), the FS values of the sandy layer (C) was 0.53 and 0.57 for ω values of 0.25 g/g and 0.05 g/g, respectively. In the alternating process of soil wetting and drying, the basic properties of the soil changed; caused traceback erosion, and thereby affected the stability of the collapsing wall. Our study provides a theoretical basis for the investigation of the factors influencing the stability of collapsing walls.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48622,"journal":{"name":"International Soil and Water Conservation Research","volume":"12 3","pages":"Pages 697-713"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095633923000874/pdfft?md5=a5dd691ecc702cb55151b1b8820f9880&pid=1-s2.0-S2095633923000874-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134914159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mapping sediment mobilization risks: Prioritizing results obtained at watershed and sub-watershed scales","authors":"Ataollah Kavian ,&nbsp;Seyedeh Nastaran Mirzaei ,&nbsp;Bahram Choubin ,&nbsp;Mahin Kalehhouei ,&nbsp;Jesús Rodrigo-Comino","doi":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Soils are key natural resources for the Earth’s system; however, human impacts, especially, soil erosion are considered serious threats. Therefore, identifying and assessing effective factors to understand erosion hot spots at different scales is critical to developing effective land management plans and ensuring the sustainability of the territory. This study was conducted to determine and prepare an erosion risk map, but to prioritize the survey at different scales, such as sub-basin and watershed ones. To achieve this goal, geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing data (RS) were used combining the analysis network process method (ANP) and ICONA model (Institute for the Conservation of Nature). As study case, we selected the degraded areas of the Gorganrood watershed located in the north of Iran. The study area was obtained for very low, low, medium, high, and very high-risk classifications of 14.0, 21.4, 17.9, 31.3, and 15.4%, respectively. Results from the ICONA model also indicated that 12.8, 28.8, 22.1, 27.9, 8.5, and 0.03% belong to very low, low, medium, high, very high, and without risk of erosion, respectively. According to the validation results, it was found that the accuracy of ANP and ICONA models are 0.83 and 0.80, respectively, which indicates the suitability of the models for preparing the erosion map of the region is appropriate and useful for designing land management plans. We conclude that both models can be used to develop the erosion map potential and to prioritize sub-basins if a complete database of geomorphological characteriscs and human activities are accurate previously defined.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48622,"journal":{"name":"International Soil and Water Conservation Research","volume":"12 3","pages":"Pages 600-614"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095633923000746/pdfft?md5=c25fd6b67dc44b94f421417895803eca&pid=1-s2.0-S2095633923000746-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135347964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Responses of soil aggregate stability and soil erosion resistance to different bedrock strata dip and land use types in the karst trough valley of Southwest China","authors":"Fengling Gan ,&nbsp;Hailong Shi ,&nbsp;Junfei Gou ,&nbsp;Linxing Zhang ,&nbsp;Quanhou Dai ,&nbsp;Youjin Yan","doi":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Soil aggregate stability is an important index that reflects soil quality and anti-erosion ability and strongly affects soil processes and functions. Bedrock strata dips (dip and anti-dip slopes) and land use types primarily influence soil aggregate stability, whereas the detailed mechanisms are unclear in karst trough valley. Therefore, to explore the effects of bedrock strata dip and land use type on soil aggregate stability in karst trough valleys, soils were collected from five major land use types (abandoned land, grassland, pepper fields, corn fields and forest) on dip and anti-dip slopes. The soil was fractionated into macroaggregates and microaggrates using dry and wet sieving analysis. The soil particle size distributions in the macroaggregates and microaggregates were measured in conventional laboratories. The results showed significant differences in soil aggregate stability among different bedrock strata dips, slope positions, and land use types (<em>P</em> &lt; 0.05). The variation ranges of macroaggregates and microaggregates in the pepper fields of the dip slope were higher than those on the anti-dip slope. Comparing all land use types, the forest of the anti-dip slope had &gt;0.25 mm water-stable aggregates (85.31%) and mean weight diameter (2.67 mm) on the upper slope compared to that in the other slope positions of the dip slope. In addition, the dip slope had a higher percentage of aggregate destruction (35.57%) than the anti-dip slope (29.81%), and the soil erodibility factor value of the natural forest of the dip/anti-dip slope was significantly lower than that of the other land use types (<em>P</em> &lt; 0.05). When the content of large macroaggregates was larger, the soil macroaggregate weight was greater. When the failure rate of the soil aggregates was lower, the stability of the soil structure was better. Overall, these results suggest that natural forests can significantly improve the stability of soil aggregates, thereby improving soil erosion resistance. Therefore, natural recovery measures should be implemented on dip/anti-dip slopes of karst trough valleys.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48622,"journal":{"name":"International Soil and Water Conservation Research","volume":"12 3","pages":"Pages 684-696"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095633923000722/pdfft?md5=7828eea443208fcde24a365f57bb4d7d&pid=1-s2.0-S2095633923000722-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46017582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comment on “Assessing gully erosion and rehabilitation using multi temporal LiDAR DEMs: Case study from the Great Barrier Reef catchments, Australia” by Khan et al., 2023","authors":"James S. Daley,&nbsp;Andrew P. Brooks,&nbsp;John R. Spencer","doi":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.09.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Geomorphic change detection (GCD) using high resolution topographic data can provide important insights into geomorphological systems. However, considerations must first be given to the mechanisms and dynamics producing landscape change when considering an appropriate experimental design. Khan et al. (2023) investigate gully erosion rates and processes in different untreated and rehabilitated gullies using multi-temporal aerial lidar survey (ALS) data. However, an inappropriate time interval between sampling, a lack of uncertainty measures and lack of baseline monitoring survey data lead them to arrive at incorrect conclusions. Additional data is presented from the same field sites, which demonstrate gully sediment losses have been underestimated by at least 330% and potentially over an order of magnitude. A number of critical shortcomiongs of the paper are outlined. Insufficient time intervals between data collection have led to a lack of detection of some sediment transport processes. Earthworks associated with gully rehabilitation have been conflated with geomorphic change, as no post-construction baseline data was collected. A lack of post-construction baseline data for this analysis means ongoing erosion and deposition cannot be resolved in the rehabilitated gully landscape. Given these errors in approach, discussions of gully geomorphic processes, erosion mechanisms and evaluations of rehabilitation efforts are unsupported, overstated and inaccurate. This has important implications for land management efforts and planning as well ongoing research on alluvial gully erosion, which is largely overlooked by Khan et al. (2023).</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48622,"journal":{"name":"International Soil and Water Conservation Research","volume":"12 2","pages":"Pages 481-486"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2023-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095633923000734/pdfft?md5=2a4eeaf0e2e82b6ebfb37210bdad0bda&pid=1-s2.0-S2095633923000734-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43605647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Watershed management, groundwater recharge and drought resilience: An integrated approach to adapt to rainfall variability in northern Ethiopia","authors":"Kifle Woldearegay ,&nbsp;Berhane Grum ,&nbsp;Rudi Hessel ,&nbsp;Frank van Steenbergen ,&nbsp;Luuk Fleskens ,&nbsp;Eyasu Yazew ,&nbsp;Lulseged Tamene ,&nbsp;Kindu Mekonnen ,&nbsp;Teklay Reda ,&nbsp;Mulu Haftu","doi":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.08.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.iswcr.2023.08.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Rainfall variability coupled with poor land and water management is contributing to food insecurity in many sub-Saharan African countries such as Ethiopia. To address such challenges, various efforts have been implemented in Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to evaluate the long-term impacts of different soil and water conservation and water harvesting interventions on groundwater and drought resilience of the Gule watershed, northern Ethiopia. The study involved: (i) documentation of the approaches followed and the technologies implemented in Gule since the 1990s, (ii) monitoring the hydrological effects of the interventions for ten years, and (iii) evaluation of the effects of the interventions on groundwater (level and quality), spring discharge and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in runoff. Results showed that interventions were implemented at different stages and scales. As a result of the interventions, the watershed was transformed into a landscape resilient to rainfall variability: (a) dry shallow groundwater wells have become productive and the level of water in wells has raised, (b) the groundwater quality has improved, (c) SSC in high floods has reduced by up to 65%, (d) discharge of existing springs has increased by up to 73% and new springs have started to emerge. Due to improved water availability, irrigated land has increased from less than 3.5 ha before 2002 to 166 ha in 2019. Communities have remained water-secure during an extreme drought in 2015/2016. Implementation of watershed management practices has transformed the landscape to be resilient to rainfall variability in a semi-arid environment: a lesson for adaptation to climate variability and change in similar environments.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48622,"journal":{"name":"International Soil and Water Conservation Research","volume":"12 3","pages":"Pages 663-683"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095633923000710/pdfft?md5=fe37091e5a510d92e76b107ff1b04be2&pid=1-s2.0-S2095633923000710-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49254560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}