PRINCIPLES OF SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION

1. PRINCIPLES OF SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION WMA 401 Dr O.Z. Ojekunle, Mr E.O. Eruola Dept of Water Res. Magt. & Agromet UNAAB. Abeokuta. Ogun State Nigeria oojekunle@yahoo.com

2. PRINCIPLE OF SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION WMA 401 IMPORTANT INFORMATION # Decide Convenient Time of Meeting # Course Outline # Term Paper to be submitted 3 weeks b4 Exams # Attendance very Important # Late Coming not allow # No Phone call or eating during lecture # Contact me when the need arises # Study Well and I wish you the BEST

3. Scope of Soil and Water Conservation Principles • The Primary purposes of soil and water conservation is to ensure sustainable productivity of land through conservation of water resources and the prevention or reduction of soil erosion, land slides and debris flow. • All soft top soils when exposed to rains or streams are subject to erosion. Washed off soil, when carried away by runoff water will bring polluted material upon downstream and drainage. Therefore in addition to the maintenance of fertility soil conservation should also anticipate those problems.

4. Soil Conservation Defined • Can be defined as maintaining high productivity with minimum amount of soil lost. In this way useful life is extended by conserving nutrient. • Objectives of Soil Conservation • Promotion of proper landuse • Prevention of Soil erosion and restoration of the fertility of eroded land • Maintenance of soil fertility • Reduction of water runoff and regulation of water resources • Prevention of water and land pollution caused by carried off soil and debris • Enforcement of safe drainage and irrigation on slope land • Prevention of wind erosion.

5. Agriculture Practices Crop Management Principles Affecting Plant rate Affecting Plant date Improved Crop Species Soil Management Physical/ Mechanical Process -Terracing (Very Steep Slope) - Contouring -Strip Cropping Methods of Soil Conservation

6. Water Conservation Defined • Is the efficient management of water to reduce evaporation or waste and to make water available when and where needed • Objectives of Water Conservation and Management • Improve availability of water for plant use. Plant requires water for carbohydrate metabolism, for heat dissipation, medium of nutrients transportation. • Hydropower generation: Construction of hydraulic structure (Dam) to generate high load of electricity • Irrigation: Provide artificial supply of water for plant when rainfall is insufficient or not available.

7. Methods of Water Conservation Practices • Water resources development • Collection and storage of surface water • Recharge of ground water • The above can be achieved by building (i) dams, (ii) Water harvest system (iii) Ponds • Flood Control: Canals, Weirs, dams etc. • Moisture Conservation Practices • Tillage Operation: Ridge (Improving infiltration and reducing evaporation) • Grass Barrier • Mulching

8. Problems of Soil and Water Conservation • Insufficient Data: i.e data related to • -Climate e.g. Rainfall, humidity, windspeed and sunshine records • -Soil data • - Water Use data: Stage and discharge record measurement. • Government Policy (Bureaucratic bottonneck, empty promises) • Not Conducive research approached • Poor Training Programme • Non Availability of facility and fund • Insufficient awareness and concern • Farmers Literacy level • Problem solving approaches e.g. Familiarization with the farmers and solution to solving problem of conservation • Government involvement needs to improve.

9. GEOMORPHOLOGICAL FACTORS AFFECTING SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION • Climate: • Topography: • Soil Characteristics: • Vegetation: • Human Behaviour:

10. GEOMORPHOLOGICAL FACTORS AFFECTING SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION (Cont) • Climate: Rainfall, wind (Detactment and transportation effect of water and wind), depend on intensity of rain drops impact, volume and speed of runoff. • Topography: Gradient of Slope, Shape of area • Soil Characteristics: Resistance of soil against detachment and movement which relied on

11. GEOMORPHOLOGICAL FACTORS AFFECTING SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION (Cont) • Soil Texture- • Soil Structure-

12. GEOMORPHOLOGICAL FACTORS AFFECTING SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION (Cont) • Soil Moisture- The degree of soil moisture saturation content will definitely affects erosion. • Vegetation:Covering, Height, density • Human Behaviour: Deforestation, Pollution of canal/channel, bad farm management practices (Excessive utilization of land for farming strips, the gradient of protective cover and destabilization of the top soil, consequently destroying the great fertile land of many years)

13. SOIL EROSION Defined • Soil erosion is a phenomenon that happens when soil is washed by rain, runoff water or waves, blown by wind or affected by gravity or drastic temperature variation. Under these influences, soil structures disintegrate and the soil particle becomes detached. Eventually the particles will be carried away and deposited at another location. • Causes of Soil Erosion • Soil erosion is mostly caused by water and wind, something both simultaneously or consecutively at the same location. When that happens, their destructive power will be multiple.

14. Significance of Soil Erosion • Loss of top soil:Causes insufficient growth in plant • Nutrient Loss:same as 1 • Stream pollution:Silting of dam reserviour, water bodies reduce the hydropower pressure head i.e water level in the reserviour.

15. Forms of Erosion • Normal and Accelerated • Normal Erosion(Natural erosion or geological erosion) This type of erosion takes place when the environmental elements in an area remain undisturbed and the natural vegetative cover unbroken. It goes unceasingly all the time. • Accelerated Erosion:This takes place when vegetative cover or the stability of top soil is broken. In this type of erosion, movement of soil particles becomes extensive and the soil particles are stripped off their structural chemical elements.

16. Agents and Process of Erosion • Agents of Erosion • -Water • -Wind • -Gravity • Process of Erosion • Detachment: • Transportation: (Suspension, Saltation and Bed Creeps) • Deposition:

17. Process of Erosion • Detachment: This involves the loosening of particles within the soil aggregate. The usual agent includes rain drops and water flow in phases. • Factors Affecting Detachment • Rainfall factors including raindrop size, velocity and amount of rainfall. • Soil factors including soil structure and infiltration of the soil. • Texture of the soil; the sandy soil will be easily detached compared to clay

18. Process of Erosion • Transportation: This is the movement of detached soil from one place to another. This can be divided into 3 modes, they are Suspension, Saltation, Bed Creeps. • Agent of Transportation • Runoff • Splash of rain drops

19. Process of Erosion • Deposition:This refers to the release of sediment load in the runoff to the bottom of the bed when runoff reaches flat lowland and the current slows down. • The factor influencing depositions are • The size of the soil unit • Runoff velocity • Turbulence in the runoff • Obstruction to flow

20. Factor Affecting Water Erosion • The main factor affecting erosion by water are • Topography, Climate, Soil and Vegetative cover • Topography we have Slope and water shed characteristic • Climate we have rainfall erosivity and other factor that affect soil moisture content and plant growth. • Soil, we have permeability, transportability and detachability • Vegetative cover we have canopy and mulching

21. Topography • Water Shed: • Size, shape and the length of water shed • Slope:

22. Climate: • Rainfall erosivity will involve the intensity, duration and the pattern of rainfall. • The factor that will affect moist content and plant growth will include Temperature, humidity and solar radiation.

23. Soil: • Permeability to water will be affected by porosity and hydrostatic pressure in the pore. • Transportability will be influenced by aggregate size. • Detachability will be influenced by aggregate stability i.e how the aggregate particles are bonded together

24. Vegetative Cover • Canopy refer to the living plant height and density of vegetation • Mulch refers to death organic material and vegetation that spread on the soil.

25. FACTOR INFLUENCING EROSION • Erosivity and Erodibility Factors • Erosivity Agent: Refers to ability of agent to cause erosion (i.e. rainfall). This factors responsible for erosivity and cause erosion are • Intensity of rainfall: • Duration of rainfall • - Pattern of rainfall • - Raindrops size, shape • - Frequency of rainfall

26. - Intensity of rainfall: • Soil loss is closely related to rainfall partly through the detaching power of raindrops striking the soil surface and partly the contribution of rain runoff. The most suitable expression of the erosivity of rainfall is an index base on the kinetic of the rain. Thus the erosivity of a rain is a function ot its intensity and duration, and of the mass, diameter and the velocity of the raindrops. Inspite of the difficulties posed by these variations, it is possible to derive general relationships between kinetic energy and rainfall intensity. Based on the work of Laws and Parsons (1943), Wischmeier and Smith (1985) Obtained the equation • KE = 11.87+8.73log10I • Where I is the rainfall intensity (mm/h) and KE is the Kinentic Energy (Jm-2mm-1)

27. Wind Erosivity: • Wind Erosivity: The kinetic energy (KEa; Jm-2mm-1 ) of wind can be calculated from KEa= • KEa =Where u is the wind velocity in m/s and is the specific weight of air defined in terms of temperature (T) in oC and barometric pressure (P) in kPa by the relationship (Zachar) S =

28. Erodibility Factors • Erodibility Factors: Refers to the ability to be eroded, it can be related to soil as it the soil that is being carried away. The erodibility factors are • - Structure of soil which may include aggregate size, stability • - Moisture content: • - Soil Porosity • - Vegetation Cover in term of canopy and organic matter. (mulch)

29. SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL MEASUREMENT OF EROSION PROCESSES • The effectiveness of overflow as an eroding agent depends on its spatial extent and distribution over a hillside. Horton (1945) describes overland flow covering two-thirds or more of the hillslopes in a drainage basin during the peak period of a storm. The flow results from the rainfall intensity being greater than the infiltration capacity of the soil and is distributed over the land surface in the following pattern. At the top of a slope is a zone without flow which forms a belt of no erosion. At a critical distance from the crest sufficient water has accumulated on the surface for the flow to begin. Moving further downslopes, the depth of flow increases with a distance from the crest until, at a further critical distance, the flow becomes concentrated into fewer and deeper flow paths which occupy a progressively smaller portion of the hillslope (Parsons, Abraham and Luk 1990).

30. SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL MEASUREMENT OF EROSION PROCESSES (Cont) • Hydraulic efficiency improves allowing the increased discharge to be accommodated by a higher flow velocity. Nevertheless, the hydraulic characteristics of the flow vary greatly over very short distances because of the influenced of bed roughness associated with vegetation and stones. As a result, erosion is often localized and after a rainstorm the surface of a hillside display a pattern of alternating scours and sediment fans (Moss and Walker 1978). Eventually, the flow breaks up into rills. That overland flows occurs in such a widespread has been question, particularly in well vegetated areas where such flow occurs infrequently and covers only 10 to 30 percent of the area of a drainage basin closest to the stream sources (Kirkby 1969a).

31. SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL MEASUREMENT OF EROSION PROCESSES (Cont) • Under these conditions its occurrence is more closely related to the saturation of the soil and the fact that moisture storage capacity is exceeded rather than infiltration capacity. Although, as illustrated by the detailed studies of Dunnes and Black (1970) in a small forested catchment in Vermont, the saturated areas expand and contract, being sensitive to heavy rain and snow melt, rarely cab erosion by overland flow affect more than a small part of the hillslopes.

32. Subsurface flow • The lateral movement of water downslope through the soil is known as interflow. Where it takes place as concentrated flow in tunnels or subsurface pipes its erosive effects through tunnels collapse and the gully formation are well known. Less is known about the eroding ability of water moving through the pore spaces in the soil, although it has been suggested that fine particles may be washed out by this process (Swan 1970). Pilgrim and Huff (1983) measured sediment concentration as high as 1g/l in subsurface flow through a silt-loam on a 17o slope under grass in California in storms of 10mm/h intensity or less. More important than the sediment concentrations, however, are the base mineral concentrations in the subsurface flow. Essential plants nutrients, particularly those added by fertilizers, can be removed, thereby impoverishing the soil and reducing its resistance to erosion.

33. Types of Erosion by Water • Interrill Erosion: is made up of splash and sheet erosion • Rainsplash/Splash Erosion: This is also known as raindrop erosion, this take place when a rain drop hits the ground. At the point of impact, the soil structure will be form apart by the kinetic energy released by the rain drop. The detached soil particles will be splash over the surrounding area. If these particles are not transported away by runoff, they will pile up, sometimes attaining a thickness of several centimeters.

34. Sheet Erosion: • The uniform removal of a thin layer of soil surface by runoff. The rolling power of the sheet is a function of the depth and velocity of flow. When Precipitation slightly exceeds soil permeability, excessive water will form a thin sheet or film of no more than 0.1-3.0mm thick. Water in this states moves over the gradient surface and between soil particles, sometimes with very small ripples. As its speed of flow increases, especially when the film slides over a slope without resistance, it peels the surface soil off layer by layer. Sheet erosion removes fine particles and organic matter from the soil without leaving any clear traces, although the soil will be deprived of its fertility.

35. Rill Erosion: • It is widely accepted that rills are initiated at a critical distance downslope where overland flow becomes channeled. The break-up of shallow overland flow into small channels of micro-rills was examined by Moss, Green and Hukta (1982). They found that in addition to the main flow path downslope, secondary flow path developed with a lateral component. Where these converged, increase in discharge intensified particle movement and small channels or trenches were cut by scouring (running water) erode (a channel or pool). • Are channel formed due to concentration of water. At first runoff, there will strong clear pattern, or mark in the ground with numerous wrinkles. The wrinkles will deepen into grooves and then gutters. A rill is always not more than 30 cm in depth and 100 cm in width. A cut beyond this dimension should be called gully

36. Gully Erosion • is just an advanced stage of rill erosion while rill can be removed by normal tillage operations, gully erosion cannot be removed. Gully are relatively permanent steep-sided water courses which experience ephemeral flows during rainstorm. Compared with Stable River channels which have a relatively smooth, concave-upwards long profile, gullies are characterized by a headcut and various steps or knick-points along the course. These rapid changes in slope alternate with sections of very gentle gradient, either straight or slightly convex in long profile. Gullies also have relatively greater depth and smaller width than stable channels, carry larger sediment loads and display very erratic behaviour so that relationships between sediment discharge and runoff are frequently poor (Heede 1975).

37. Gully Erosion (Cont) • Gullies are almost associated with accelerated erosion and therefore with landscape instability. Depending on the texture of the soil and bedrock, as well as the gradient of the slope, gullies are generally cut into one of the following four forms

38. Gully Erosion (Cont) • Shallow through form: Usually found in places where the soil is heavy and firm. The gully is wide but shallow with obtuse edges. • V Form: Found where thick top soil exits • U Form: Gullies of this type are cut where there is hard bed rock under soft top soil. • Complex Form: This is a combination of U and V form, with a U at the top of the gully and a V at the bottom formation of this type of gully is mainly due to the existence of a hard sub statum “sandwiched” between the top soil and another layer of soil beneath.

39. Process of Gully Erosion • Upslope movement which occurs at the head of the gully. It is sometimes called water fall erosion. • The second stage is channel erosion which is erosion in channel down slope both from side and bottom from the gully • Mass movement from sides of the soil into the channel

40. THE RESPONSE OF A SOIL TO A GIVEN RAINFALL (Cont) • Depends upon the moisture content and, therefore the structural state of the soil, and the intensity of the soil. Le. Bissonnais (1990) describes 3 possibilities. • If the soil is dry and the rainfall intensity is high, the soil aggregates break down quickly by slaking. This is the breakdown by compression of air ahead of the wetting front. Infiltration capacity reduces rapidly and on a very smooth surface, runoff can be generated after only a few millimetres of rain. With rougher surfaces, depression storage is greater and the runoff takes longer to form.

41. THE RESPONSE OF A SOIL TO A GIVEN RAINFALL (Cont) • If the aggregates are initially partially wetted or the rainfall intensity is low, microcracking occurs and the aggregate breaks down into smaller aggregates. Surface roughness thus decrease but infiltration remains high because of a large pores spaces between the mircoaggregates. • If the aggreages are initially saturated, infiltration capacity depends on the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil and large quantities of rain are required to seal the surface. Nevertheless, soils with less than 15 percent clay content are vulnerable to sealing if the intensity of the rain is high.

42. Grazing animals as Erosion Hazard • Soil factor • Soil Structure • Soil Texture • Soil Moisture • Micro-Climate

43. EFFECT OF CULTIVATION METHODS AND CROPPING SYSTEM ON EROSIONS • CULTIVATION INVOLVES • Land cropping • Ploughing • Harrowing • Seedling • Weeding

44. EFFECT OF CULTIVATION METHODS AND CROPPING SYSTEM ON EROSIONS (Cont) • Improvement on soil and soil water regime. • Runoff management may be classified as • Increase water intake and storage and so reduce runoff • Control water movement over the soil surface • Dispose safely of the excess rainfall as runoff or concentrate on inadequate rainfall runoff.

45. GUIDELINES FOR PLANNING SOIL CONSERVATION MEASURE (Cont) • Planning of land use according to land capability on the basis of conservation of farm planning • Reducing splash erosion with vegetation which shields the ground surface against the impact of rain • Strengthening soil resistance against erosion with vegetative, agronomic and engineering measure • Reducing run-off, through increase of the absorption capacity of ground, with agronomic ,vegetative and engineering measures

46. GUIDELINES FOR PLANNING SOIL CONSERVATION MEASURE (Cont) • Increasing the roughness of ground surface so as to reduce the speed of run-off by engineering, agronomic and vegetative measure. • Draining run-off with a specially designed drainage system aimed at preventing erosion. Vegetative measure may be incorporated to strengthen the preventive effect • Reinforcing protection of points such as farm paths and drainage channels where erosion and slides are likely to take place, with adequate drainage system

47. SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION METHOD • Soil and water conservation in Agriculture can be grouped into 3 • Practices that reduce run-off through improved infiltration capacity and soil transmission characteristics. • Practices that reduce run-off by controlling water movement over the surface. • Practices that permits safe disposal of run-off

48. PRACTICES THAT REDUCE RUN-OFF THROUGH IMPROVED INFILTERATION CAPACITY AND SOIL TRANSMISSION • Mulching Farming • Soil Conditioners • Cover Crops • Alley Cropping • Ploughing

49. PRACTISES THAT REDUCE RUN-OFF BY CONTROLLING WATER MOVEMENT OVER THE SURFACE • Strip Cropping • Contour Farm • Ridge and Mound • Terrace Farming

50. PRACTISES THAT PERMITS SAFE DISPOSAL OF RUN-OFF • Where land use management alone is insufficient to prevent runoff, the excess water has to be removed without causing erosion. Undesireable runoff can be intercepted or diverted from an area above cultivated land and led away safely by a combination of physical measure including interception, terraces, diversion ditches or storm-water drains, waterway and terraces channel. The interception terrace and diversion ditches are placed up slope of areas where protection is required to intercept runoff on the hillside and channeled across slope at a non-erosive velocity along a near level, gently-graded, terrace channel, to a suitable outlet which may be a natural or artificial waterway.