Water erosion estimate in Belem Stream Watershed in Minas Gerais state
Guilherme Henrique Expedito Lense
1
*, Fernanda Almeida Bócoli
2
, Rodrigo Santos Moreira
3
, Ronaldo Luiz
Mincato4
Abstract
Water erosion causes a diversity of negative environmental impacts, provoking soil degradation and by consequence the
agricole production decrease. Due to the damage caused by the soil erosion process, were developed a diversity of water
erosion modeling methods in other to support in other to project and implement measures soil conserva- tion. Among the
models, the more useful is the Erosion Potential Method (EPM), which recently was adapted to the brazilian tropical
conditions. In this context, the objective of this work was estimating the soil loss by Erosion Potential Method in a water
basin located in Muzambinho, in the South of Minas Gerais. The EPM model estimated the water erosion in this study area
starting with climate, topographic, pedology, land use, and erosive features degree parameters. The modeling stage and the
parameters obtaining was done with the Geography Information System and remote sensing help. The total soil loss
estimated by the EPM model was 10,418.53 Mg year-1, of which 5.50% reaches the water resources directly contributing to
the siltation and water quality depreciation. The higher slope areas and the rural roads with exposed soil are where localize
the biggest soil loss degrees. The modeling application was giving up in a simple and fast form, provender satisfactory
results that are useful to the planning of soil conservation practices in the water basin.
Keys words:
Soil conservation. Erosion Potential Method. Agricole Sustainability.
Estimativa da erosão hídrica na Bacia Hidrográfica do Córrego Belém, Minas Gerais
Resumo
A erosão hídrica gera diversos impactos negativos ao ambiente provocando a degradação do solo e consequente queda da
produção agrícola. Devido aos danos causados pelo processo, foram desenvolvidos diversos métodos de modelagem da
erosão hídrica afim de auxiliar na projeção e implementação de medidas de conservação do solo. Dentre os modelos têm se o
Método de erosão potencial (EPM) que recentemente foi adaptado para as condições tropicais brasileiras. Nesse contexto, o
objetivo do trabalho foi estimar as perdas de solo pelo Método de Erosão Po- tencial em uma bacia hidrográfica situada em
Muzambinho no Sul de Minas Gerais. O modelo EPM estimou a erosão hídrica na área a partir de parâmetros referentes ao
clima, topografia, pedologia, uso da terra e grau das feições erosivas. As etapas da modelagem e a obtenção dos parâmetros
foram feitas com auxílio de Sistema de Informação Geográfica e sensoriamento remoto. O modelo EPM estimou a perda de
solo total em 10.418,53 Mg ano-1, das quais 5,50% atingem diretamente os cursos hídricos contribuindo para o assoreamento e
depreciação da qualidade da água. As áreas com maior declividade, e as estradas rurais com presença de solo exposto são
onde se concentraram as maiores taxas de perda de solo. A aplicação do modelo se deu de forma rápida e simples, fornecendo
resultados satisfatórios que são uteis para o planejamento da adoção de práticas de conservação do solo na bacia hidrográfica.
Palavras chave:
Conservação do solo. Método de Erosão Potencial. Sustentabilidade agrícola.
1Universidade Federal de Alfenas. Alfenas, MG. Brasil.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3560-9241 2Universidade
Federal de Lavras. Lavras, MG. Brasil.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5476-6886
3Universidade Federal de Alfenas. Alfenas, MG. Brasil.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7443-94
4Universidade Federal de Alfenas. Alfenas, MG. Brasil.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8127-0325
*Autor para correspondência: guilhermeelense@gmail.com
Recebido para publicação em 18 de novembro de 2019. Aceito para publicação em 27 de março de 2020.
e-ISSN: 2447-6218 /
ISSN: 2447-6218. Atribuição CC BY.
CADERNO DE CIÊNCIAS AGRÁRIAS
Agrarian Sciences Journal
2
Lense G. H. E. et al.
Introduction
Water erosion occurs in the worldwide watershed,
with
strong anthropic influences. In advanced stages, this
phenomenon provokes soil loss, removes nutrients, organic
carbon and agrochemicals out of the systems,
diminishing
the agricole production (Avanzi et al., 2013).
This kind of
erosion also generates the sediment deposi- tion in hydric
courses promoting the siltation and with it the water quality
decrease (Haghizadeh; Shui; Godarzi, 2009).
In this context, the objective of this work was
estimating the soil loss by Erosion Potential Method in a
watershed located in Muzambinho, in the South of Minas
Gerais, in other to subsidiary the planning of
conservationist practices.
Material and Methods
Study area
The study area corresponds to the Belem Stream
Watershed, Muzambinho river affluent, situated in Mu-
zambinho city, Minas Gerais South region, Brazil (Fi- gure
1) (from 46°32’44’’ to 46°34’35” W and 21°24’7” to
21°26’32’’ S, SIRGAS 2000). The basin presents an area of
997,75 ha, with altitudes varying from 1020 m to 1240 m
(Figure 1A). The region climate second Köppen
classification is Mesothermal Tropical (Cwb) (Alvares et
al., 2013), with wavy relief (8 - 20%) predominantly
(Figure
1B) and soils classified as Red Dystrophic Latosols
(UFV,
2010).
Given the various negative impacts generated by
the
erosion, the estimative of damage scope is essential,
in other
to project and implement targeted and effective
measures soil
conservation. In this way, was developed a model diversity
that simulates soil loss, as the Erosion Potential Method
(EPM). The EPM is an empiric model,
of easy utilization,
implementation capacity with Geogra-
phy Information
System (GIS) and application low cost (Efthimiou et al.,
2017). The EPM is the largest applied to identification of the
high vulnerability areas to ero- sive process, and recently
this method was adapted to
brazilian tropic conditions
(Efthimiou et al., 2017; Lense
et al., 2019; Sakuno et al.
2020; Tavares et al., 2019).
Figure 1 – Localization, Digital Elevation Model (A) and Declivity Map (B) of Belem Stream Watershed, Muzambinho, South of
Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was elabora-
ted
from Brazil in Relief digital platform available data
(Miranda, 2005). With DEM utilization was elaborated the
Declivity Map (spatial resolution of 10 meters), by the
Slope tool from ArcMap 10.3 (ESRI, 2015).
forest (24.05%), rural roads (1.20%), facilities (0.51%) and
drainage (2.55%). The land use map (Figure 2) was done
basing in field survey, images from Google Earth (2019)
and of Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) satellite,
bands 2, 3 e 4, in the orbit 219, point 75, obtained of Images
Division Generation (INPE, 2019). It was used the ArcMap
10.3 (ESRI, 2015) software.
The predominant crop in the area is coffee
(39.62%), followed by degraded pasture (32.07%), native
Cad. Ciênc. Agrá., v. 12, p. 01–05, 2020. e-ISSN: 2447-6218 / ISSN: 1984-6738
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Water erosion estimate in Belem Stream Watershed in Minas Gerais state
Figure 2 – Land use map of Belem Stream Watershed, Muzambinho, south of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Erosion Potential Method
The parameter Y varies from 0.25 to 2 and repre-
sents the soil resistance to the erosive process, whereas the
higher the Y value lower is the hydric erosion soil
resistance. The Xa varies from 0.05 to 1, according to the
ground cover, on what exposed soils present the biggest Xa
values. As for the parameter φ, it varies from 0.1 to 1
and is
visually determinate according to erosive features
present in
the study area. The parameters Y, Xa and φ are calculated
using Gavrilovic (1962) tabled values, adapted by Sakuno et
al. (2020) to Brazilian conditions. The area means slope (Isr)
is 8.40%, calculated using the slope map (Figure 1B).
The EPM model estimates the water erosion from
climate, topographic, pedology, land use, and erosion
feature degree. The area erosive process susceptibility to
(Z) is calculated as Equation 1. Areas with Z > 1.0 values
present high susceptibility to erosion, while areas with Z
< 0.19 present low susceptibility to erosion (Gavrilovic,
1962).
Equation 1
On what, Y = water erosion soil resistance; Xa = coefficient of soil use and
management; φ = coefficient of visible erosion features, both dimensionless
and Isr = mean slope in %.
Utilizing the coefficient Z, the EPM estimates the
total soil loss (W ) in Mg year-1, according to Equation
yr
2:
Equation 2
On what: t0 = mean air temperature in °C year-1; Hyr = annual average rainfall, in mm; Ds = mean soil density in kg dm-3; F = study area (km2).
For the study area, the t0 and the Hyr were 19°C and
1500 mm, respectively. The climate data was obtai- ned
basing in a weather station next to the study area. For the
soil mean density has utilized the value of 1.21
kg dm
-3
,
obtained by Lense et al. (2019), also in the south
of Minas
Gerais.
The modeling stages and the parameter obtention was
done with the GIS and remote sensing help utilizing
ArcMap
10.3 (ESRI, 2015) software.
Results and Discussion
The Y value to the hydrographic basin Latosols
was 0.8, indicating good resistence to the erosive pro- cess.
The vegetation cover of the area provided high soil
protection, especially in the forest and coffee growing areas
with an average Xa of 0.40. The average φ value of the area
is 0.32, with laminar erosion occurring pre- dominantly in
crops, while on rural roads erosion in furrows
predominates. Based on these parameters and
the slope of
the area, the erosion intensity coefficient (Z)
was quantified at
0.22, indicating that the vast majority of the watershed has
low susceptibility to water erosion.
The EPM allows estimating the eroded soil frac-
tion that is retained in the water basin interior and the
fraction that reaches hydrous bodies by the Retention
Coefficient (Ru) utilization, calculated as Zemljic (1971)
(Equation 3).
Equation 3
On what: F = watershed area (9.97 km2); O = perimeter (12.99 km); D =
mean elevation difference (0.09 km), obtained by the differen- ce between
the mean altitude (1108 m) and the minimum altitude (1020 m); L = water
basin main length (4.40 km) and Li = secondary length (2.85 km).
Cad. Ciênc. Agrá., v. 12, p. 01–05, 2020. e-ISSN: 2447-6218 / ISSN: 1984-6738
4
Lense G. H. E. et al.
The total soil loss estimated by the EPM model was
10,418.53 Mg year-1, of which 5.50% (Retention
Coefficient
value - R
u
) reaching directly the hydric courses
contributing to
siltation and water quality depreciation.
The higher slope
areas and the rural roads with exposed
soil are where localize
the biggest soil loss degrees (Fi-
gure 3). According to Pandey et al. (2007) and Beskow et
al. (2009), erosive rates lower than 4 Mg year-1 and higher
than 15 Mg year-1 can be considered of low and high
intensity respectively. In this contest, 27% of the
hydrographic basin, has a small soil loss and 25% of the area
has an elevated one.
Figure 3 – Soil loss estimates of Potential Erosion Method in the Belem Stream watershed, Muzambinho, south of Minas
Gerais, Brazil.
The high soil loss areas, observed in Figure 3,
might be prioritized in the erosion mitigation measures
introduction, and, as these areas are distributed in the whole
hydrographic basin is necessary a broad planning of
conservationist practices introduction (Beskow et al., 2009).
minimum rates. As the rural roads, the introduction of
gravel and containment basins are alternatives in other to
reduce the groove erosion (Scharrón; Sánchez, 2017; Lense
et al., 2019).
Conclusion
The Erosion Potential Method estimated the Belem
Stream hydrographic basin soil loss in 10,418.53 Mg year-1.
About 5.50% of eroded soil reach directly the area hydric
courses.
Considering the land use classes, the lower ero- sive
rates were observed in the forest areas (1.85 Mg ha-1 year-1),
followed by coffee (13.50 Mg ha-1 year-1), pasture (14.00
Mg ha-1 year-1) and access roads (16.10 Mg ha-1 year-1). The
native forest vegetation elevated density promoted lower
soil loss rates on this land use, a result similar to Lense et
al (2019) and Tavares et al (2019). The areas with facilities
and hydric courses weren’t considered in EPM calculation
because they do not participate in sediment generation.
The modeling application was giving up in a
simple and fast form, provender satisfactory results that are
useful to the planning of soil conservation practices in the
water basin.
Acknowledgments
To reduce the hydric erosion there should be
introduced measures to diminish the agricole activities’
impact over the soil, improving the soil covering and
consequently the soil protection. The degraded pasture
areas
have to pass to a vegetation recovering process and
the coffee
cultivation area, conservationists’ practices, as the
vegetation management between coffee rows, has to be
maximized in other to reduce the erosion to
The authors thank the Fundação de Amparo à
Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) for the
scholarship offered to the first author.
This study was financed in part by the Coorde-
nação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
– Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001.
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