Determination of Soil Erodibility in Different Land Uses of Semi-Arid Lands

Inappropriate changes in land uses due to human influences and converting forests or grassland to cultivated areas by destruction are still major problem all over the world. Land use changes affect many ecological processes such as natural sources, surface flow and erosion, and it changes resistance of soil to environmental influences. Land use and land cover are also most important factors affecting the susceptibility of the soil to erosion. There may be some differences in soil erodibility when it is used for different erosion forces and processes under different surface and hydrologic conditions and cultivation systems in places where different erosion-generating forces can co-operate. This parameter can reveal soil erodibility in terms of both breakdown of soil aggregation or structure and transport processes of soil particle along a slope section. In this respect, soil erodibility is an important parameter for erosion and desertification indicators. In this study, soil erodibility was determined in intensively cultivated alluvial and colluvial areas and grassland in semi-arid Asartepe Dam Basin located in ？lhan ？ayi sub-catchment of the Sakarya Basin. 256 Soil surface samples were taken using grid sampling method from each area and K factor was calculated by Nomograf equation. The study results showed that the soil properties changed significantly based on land use pattern changed along a slope, and this change reflected in the K values. While the highest K value (0,0389 t/ha*ha/MJ*h/mm) was found in grassland, it was followed by alluvial (0,0302 t/ha*ha/MJ*h/mm) and colluvial agricultural areas (0,0263 t/ha*ha/MJ*h/mm)