Case Study Performance of gully control measures in foothills of lower Shiwaliks

摘要

Gully erosion is most prevalent type of water erosion which dissects the fields, impedes tillage operations, damages agricultual, residential and recreational land, hinders ground water recharge, causes environmental pollution, creats safety hazards and above all contributes to downstream sedimentation resulting in siltation of dams and reservoirs. Sediment production from gullies has been reported to be at the tune of 147 per cent of that produced by inter-rill erosion (Grissinger and Merphy 1989; Poesen 1996), On marginal farmland gully erosion is major source of soil and associated nitrogen and phosphorous losses (Sharpley et al. 1996) and thus reduces the crop yields significantly. Severe gully erosion is attributed to high soil erodibility, steep and long slopes and sparse vegetation cover. Various factors controlling gully growth are catchment characteristics viz, area (Burkard and Kostaschuk 1997), slope steepness (Kukal et al. 1991), slope shape (Meyer and Martinez-Casasnovas 1999), gully dimension parameters, surface runoff, precipitation, soil moisture and piping (Stocking 1980). Also land abandonment and afforestation can increase gully erosion.