Gully Erosion and Its Environmental Impact in Eke, Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State

摘要

This paper assessed the environmental impact of gully erosion in Eke, Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State, South East Nigeria. Data on the gully sites were collected using measuring instrument; observations were made with regards to the effects of the hazard on the study areas. Simple random sampling techniques were used to select respondents. A total of 150 questionnaires were returned out of 200 questionnaires distributed. Findings show that the gully in Enugu Eke has a mean cross-sectional dimension of 15.67 + 14.01m, that of Oma Eke 13.00 + 12.49m, while Ogui Eke has a mean cross-sectional dimension of 7.60 + 5.70m. From the mean values, differences was observed among the various study sites, however, with very high standard deviations and standard errors for Enugu Eke and Oma Eke, supported by the ANOVA results, having calculated F-value of 0.395, which is less than the critical F-value of 5.14, and the p-value of 0.69 > 0.05. The difference observed among the three study sites is not significant. Hence, the null hypothesis is accepted. The study revealed that the initiation and development of erosion gullies in the area is facilitated by natural (rainfall, topography, engineering geological properties of soil especially texture, etc) and anthropogenic factors especially road construction, excavation, drainage structure, farming, animal grazing. The study observed that gully erosion have caused a lot of pain and damage such as loss of life's, properties, communication routes, roads and has also modified the topography of the area. Recommendation made include planting of vegetative cover, construction of erosion channels, educating the populace and creating awareness on adequate practices to curtail the menace.