Soil loss vulnerability: the case study of Aghien lagoon watershed outskirts Abidjan city (Côte d'Ivoire)

Abstract. Aghien lagoon is a source of fresh water outskirts of Abidjan city in the south of Côte d'Ivoire. For a better understanding of its functioning, we proposed to estimate its main tributaries (Bété and Djibi) soil loss during 2016 and 2017 as part of our research activities in the lagoon watershed in order to evaluate its vulnerability face to soil loss. The methodological approach is based on USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation) incorporated into GIS (Geographic Information Systems). This equation takes into account five key factors: the erosivity of rainfall, the soil erodibility, the topographic factor integrating slope length and steepness, the cover-management factor and the support practice factor. The combination of these factors made it possible to obtain soil loss maps of the lagoon main tributaries. The analysis of them revealed that soil loss varying mostly between 0 and 250 t ha−1 yr−1 in 2016 and 2017. With regard to the two years, the vulnerability of the lagoon face to soil loss is “low” category. In fact, the soil loss class ranging from 0 to 20 t ha−1 yr−1 occupies more than 60 % of the two sub-basins area in 2016. This trend increased in 2017 with equivalent of 71 % of the area. On the over hand, the “very high” vulnerability ranging from 250 to 1050 t ha−1 yr−1, occupied in 2016, only 0.01 % of the area. In 2017, this category of vulnerability increased in intensity, occupying 0.05 % of it. Ultimately, the increasing observed in 2016 and 2017 seems to be related to annual rainfall of respectively 1553 and 2198 mm. The case study of Aghien lagoon, soil loss vulnerability can be improved by taking account a long time series of rainfall and land use data.