National Seminar on the Natural Heritage of Northern Peninsular Malaysia 5-6 October 2009

GIS-BASED ASSESSMENT OF SOIL EROSION AT THE TIMAH TASOH RESERVOIR CATCHMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT.
ZULLYADINI A. RAHAMAN, CHANDER SEGAR PILLAY, WAN RUSLAN ISMAIL & RUSLAN RAINIS.
Hydrogeomorphology Research Group Geography Section School of Humanities Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800 Minden, Penang zully@usm.my

ABSTRACT Soil erosion is a major environmental problem worldwide. Although soil erosion has occurred throughout the history of civilization, it has intensified in recent years. Thus, understanding the soil erosion processes spatially is essential in appreciating the extent and causes of soil erosion and in planning soil conservation for sustainable management of a catchment area. This paper discussed the methodologies of soil erosion assessment spatially according to the USLE factors (R, K, L, S, C and P) that were adapted to the study area, the Timah Tasoh Reservoir catchment of Perlis, Malaysia. This study was carried out based on hydrological data from September 2005 to August 2006. The parameters of the USLE were evaluated individually and merged in order to calculate the soil loss amount during the study period. The estimated soil loss for the whole catchment ranged from 51.73 t km-2 yr-1 (Upper Pelarit) to 197.75 t km-2 yr-1 (Tasoh). The estimated soil loss for Chuchuh, Jarum and Lower Pelarit is 62.67 t km-2 yr-1, 65.56 t km-2 yr-1 and 79.94 t km-2 yr-1 respectively. The results also show a significance importance of spatial distribution of soil erosion in the catchment, thus enable planners and other relevant authorities to easily identify the highest prone area of soil erosion for a better and sustainable catchment management.

Keyword(s): USLE; soil erosion; sustainable catchment management.

National Seminar on the Natural Heritage of Northern Peninsular Malaysia 5-6 October 2009

INTRODUCTION Anthropogenic impacts such as logging, land clearance for agriculture and other development have resulted in both increased sediment transport by rivers, due to accelerated erosion and reduced sediment loads due to sediment trapping by dams and reservoirs [1] [2]. Human activities have played an important role as an important geomorphic agent acting on the earths surface [3]. Soil erosion is a widespread problem in developing countries. Pressure on land resources has become more intense due to population growth and increasing demand for food, economic dependence on primary production and chaotic urban growth causing land degradation [4] [5] [6]. In the Timah Tasoh reservoir catchment, soil erosion due to the various human activities in the catchment has been identified as a major contribution to the sediment transported into the river that reaches the reservoir [7]. Accelerated sedimentation rate in the reservoir can significantly reduce a reservoirs surface area, eliminating wetland area surrounding the reservoir and shallow the areas near the shore of the reservoir. Thus, the environmental planning and management concerning the agricultural optimization and other aspect of development in the area to reduce soil erosion and sediment transport is a major issues to dealt with in order to sustain the reservoir function as a main water resources in Perlis. Recently, the interest in the soil erosion assessment and the challenge to mapping change and prediction of soil erosion is very high and the monitoring of land use and land cover changes integrated in a GIS is essential to develop an effective land management and to improve the output of agricultural activities [8] [9]. The problem of soil erosion has to be dealt with using as few financial resources as possible and usually, most of the financial budget of a GIS project has to be spent on a geographical source data. The traditional approached of monitoring and managing soil erosion problem may involved big financial budget, thus will limit researchers especially in the developing countries to conduct a comprehensive study. Furthermore, approach using sub catchment method cant identify the location or the origin of soil erosion around a catchment. For example, sediment yield (t km-2 yr-1) approach to estimate soil loss from a catchment based or being divided into smaller sub catchment only give a general perspective of the amount of soil loss, without knowing where the soil erosion occurs around the catchment [7]. For that reason, this study is to present a simple approach and efficient method of soil erosion assessment for a better catchment management and planning in the Timah Tasoh reservoir catchment. During the last few decades, many erosion prediction models has been established, such as Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) [10], Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) [11], MUSLE87 [12], CREAMS [13], ANSWERS [14], AGNPS [15], WEPP [16], EUROSEM [17] and many more has been developed for assessment of soil erosion. To date, USLE has still being universally accepted method for monitoring soil erosion because of its applicability has been proven over last decades, simple to use and conceptually easy to understand [18] and although the study by Foster [19] and Millington [20] showed that USLE model was often inadequate, but the reliability of the results is undisputable [21] [22] [23] and can be supported by GIS [8]. STUDY AREA Timah Tasoh reservoir (636N, 10014E) is located approximately 13 km north of Kangar town near the Thailand border. The reservoir has a mean surface area of 13.33 km2 and a storage capacity of about 40 million m3. The reservoir receives inputs from two main rivers, the Tasoh River and Pelarit River, which have a combined basin area of 191 km2 and supply approximately 97 million m3 of water into the reservoir annually. The reservoir is shallow with a maximum depth of 10 m and submerged aquatic plants can be seen along the shoreline and in shallow areas. At present, the main purpose of the reservoir is to supply water for domestic and industrial use as well as for irrigation and flood control.

National Seminar on the Natural Heritage of Northern Peninsular Malaysia 5-6 October 2009

Tasoh River consists of two main sub catchments, Jarum River and Chuchuh River respectively. The area surrounding the reservoir and its upstream catchments includes mainly agriculture such as sugar, rubber, rice and timber plantations, and urban area such as Padang Besar town, which influence the sediment discharge of the Jarum River. The reservoir catchment has been divided into five sub catchments as illustrated in Figure 1. The first catchment (Jarum River - 64.4 km2) was disturbed and has a mixed land use such as urban area and agriculture, mainly sugar cane, rubber and paddy. Upper Pelarit River has a catchment area of 42.7 km2 and despite the presence of rural area, small town and quarrying activity, approximately 90% of the catchment covered with forest. Chuchuh River has a catchment area of 14.8 km2, and although approximately 98% of the catchment covered with forest, some of the trees were planted for research purposes by FRIM. The other two catchments, Tasoh River and Lower Pelarit River are located at the downstream of these three catchments. The Tasoh River catchment is 101.2 km2, and approximately 41% of the area was disturbed, dominantly by agricultural practices, rural and urban areas. The Lower Pelarit River catchment is 60.1 km2 and the type of land use is similar to the upstream catchment, Upper Pelarit. The detailed land use of the study area is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1: Study area and the sub catchments.

Figure 2: Land use of the study area.

National Seminar on the Natural Heritage of Northern Peninsular Malaysia 5-6 October 2009

METHODS The main data sources are paper maps that provide information about the topography, land use, soil type and precipitation data. Topography was derived from topographic map obtained from JUPEM. The map will provide basic information such as elevation (derived from contour line), river network and basic information on land use. The land use map then updated with remote sensing image for the year 2006 to obtain the latest information on land use type in the study area. Precipitation data used in this study was obtained from DID of Perlis from six rainfall stations distributed around the catchment area (Table 1). The precipitation data was from September 2005 to August 2006. Soil texture data was derived from Jamilah [24] (Table 2). The availability of these data was a decisive factor for the selection and design of the geodata. Without one of these data, the implementation and assessment of soil erosion based on GISUSLE cant be performed. The source data were processed in order to obtain the necessary data for the realization of the USLE implementation (Figure 3). The processing steps includes estimation of R factor value based on Roose [25], Morgan [26], Foster [27] equations respectively (Figure 4), the development of TIN (30m x 30m resolution) produced using ESRI ArcGIS software (Figure 5), and this topographic factors, L and S factor values were then derived from the TIN and combined to a single LS factor (Figure 6). The LS factor was calculated based on equation from Wischmeier [10]: LS = (L/22.1) m (0.065 + 0.045s + 0.0065s2) Where; L= m= slope length in meter 0.5 if %S >=4.51 0.4 if %S = 3.01 to 4.5 0.3 if %S = 1 to 3 0.2 if %S < 1 slope gradient

s=

The K factor was interpolated from soil texture data collected around the study area and later the value was assigned from nomograph [28] (Figure 7). The C factor value was derived from land use map, updated and combined with remote sensing image, which were then reclassified according to the values of the USLE factors (Figure 8), while the value of P factor has been assumed as 1 for the whole study area since there was no soil conservation practice applied in the area. Finally, the parameters of the USLE were combined to the result according to the equation; A = R x K x L x S x C x P. Where, A denotes the average annual soil loss caused by sheet and rill erosion; R is the rainfall erosivity factor; K is the soil erodibility; LS is the slope length and steepness factor (dimensionless); C is the land cover and management factor (dimensionless, ranging between 0 and 1); P is the support conservation practice factor (dimensionless, ranging between 0 and 1).

National Seminar on the Natural Heritage of Northern Peninsular Malaysia 5-6 October 2009

Table 1: Monthly rainfall data of the study area. Station Month Sept-05 Oct-05 Nov-05 Dec-05 Jan-06 Feb-06 Mar-06 Apr-06 May-06 Jun-06 Jul-06 Aug-06 Total Average Min Max Pdg Besar (mm) 198 281.5 359.5 429 37 144.9 273.5 175.5 251 133.5 136 48 2467.4 205.6 37 429 Tasoh (mm) 98.5 198.5 205 345 12 98.5 236.5 93 257.5 169.5 232 42 1988 165.7 12 345 Lubok Sireh (mm) 151 240 298 381 0 128 233 147 257 172 211 57 2275 189.6 0 381 Kaki Bukit (mm) 88.5 690 415 615.5 1 0 355 121 214.5 219.5 268 62 3050 254.2 0 690 Wang Kelian (mm) 257 431.5 374.5 377.5 0 108.5 218 217.5 302.5 306.5 229 55.5 2878 239.8 0 431.5 Guar Jentik (mm) 154 280.5 441.5 392 0 145 142 159.5 312.5 0 218.5 63.5 2309 192.4 0 441.5

(Source: Drainage and Irrigation Department, Perlis)

Table 2: Soil texture data for the study area [24] and suggested K factor derived from nomograph.

Sampling location A - Kg. Kok Mak B - Titi Tinggi C - Kg. Sahabat D - Kg. Tasoh E - Pinggir Tasik

% Sand 77.5 77.5 80.5 80.5 81.0

% Clay 6.5 5.0 4.5 9.0 8.0

% Silt 16.0 17.5 15.0 10.5 11.0

K factor 0.25 0.25 0.20 0.20 0.19

National Seminar on the Natural Heritage of Northern Peninsular Malaysia 5-6 October 2009

R Factor Annual rainfall data

K Factor Soil texture [24]

LS Factor
DEM 30x30m of the study area

C Factor Land use map

P Factor Land use map

Estimation of R value from [25] [26] [27]

Based on Nomograph [28] Interpolatio n based on Thiessen polygon

Based on equation from [29]

Derived from [29]

P value was assigned as 1 for the whole study area

R factor

K factor

LS factor

C factor

P factor

A = R x K x LS X C x P
Soil loss map

Figure 3: Work flow for the determination of all factors used in USLE.

Figure 4: R factor obtained from the equation.

National Seminar on the Natural Heritage of Northern Peninsular Malaysia 5-6 October 2009

Figure 5: (a)TIN generated for the study area.

(b) DEM generated from TIN

Figure 6: LS factor derived from DEM.

Figure 7: K factor of the study area.

Figure 8: C factor for the study area.

National Seminar on the Natural Heritage of Northern Peninsular Malaysia 5-6 October 2009

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The amount of soil loss for each sub catchment is shown in Table 3 and the detail map containing spatial information about the amount of soil erosion of the Timah Tasoh reservoir catchment was presented in Fig. 9. For the upper part of the catchment, Jarum River catchment recorded the highest amount of soil loss compared to Upper Pelarit River and Chuchuh River. The estimated soil loss at Jarum River is 65.56 t km-2 yr-1, compared to 62.67 t km-2 yr-1 at Chuchuh River and 51.73 t km-2 yr-1 at Upper Pelarit River respectively. When measured at the lower part of the catchment, Tasoh River catchment recorded the highest amount of soil loss compared to Lower Pelarit River catchment. The integrated GIS-USLE model used in this study did not provide good prediction on soil loss at a sub catchment scale when compared to the study by Zullyadini [7] (Table 3), especially for the Upper Pelarit and Jarum River. This is probably due to the fact that the variation of soil eroded and transported in the catchment is too high. Table 3: Estimated soil loss by sub catchment compared with Zullyadini [7]. Sub catchment Chuchuh River Upper Pelarit River Jarum River Lower Pelarit River Tasoh River Area (km2) 14.8 42.7 64.4 60.1 101.2 Estimated Soil loss ( t km-2 yr-1) 62.67 51.73 65.56 79.94 197.75
Estimated Soil Loss ( t km-2 yr-1) [7] 65.0

245.4 124.1 71.3 219.2

The integrated USLE-GIS model also enables us to study the effect of various land use type to soil erosion. As shown in Table 4, mining activities and bare land have contributed to the highest amount of soil loss for the whole study area and these can also been identified through map as shown in Figure 9. There is also a significant difference of estimated soil loss between the Upper Pelarit River catchment and Tasoh River catchment due to the influence of land use. This indicated that, C factor value is more dominant factor influencing soil erosion compared to gradient (LS factor) in the study area. Although the slope gradient at the Upper Pelarit is steeper compare to the other sub catchment (Tasoh River and Jarum River) but it still covered with vegetation (forested area), but when compared to Tasoh River or Jarum River catchments, human activities around the catchment such as residential, rice and sugar plantation play an important role in accelerating the soil erosion process, hence increase the amount of soil loss. Based on USLE model, C factor play an important role influencing soil erosion in a catchment area [30]. The spatial distribution of soil erosion also showed that slope gradient has less influence in the soil loss especially in the Upper Pelarit River catchment. This is due to the fact that USLE was developed for an agriculture area which has a medium slope gradient and the LS factor may be under estimate [31].

National Seminar on the Natural Heritage of Northern Peninsular Malaysia 5-6 October 2009

Table 4: Estimated soil loss by land use type. Land use Residential Bare land Tin mining Rubber Rice Mixed crop Quarry Sugar Shrub Forest Water body Total Soil Loss (t km-2 yr-1) 251.83 456.90 981.87 69.65 415.30 39.07 138.24 62.48 103.66 1.13 0

Figure 9: Maps showing the amount of soil erosion of the study area.

For a sustainable catchment management, policy makers need to know where to act in order to prevent more damages or negative impacts from soil erosion. They also need to know what will be the effect of land use on soil erosion rate. Dealing with either on-site or off-site impacts of soil erosion requires different measures at different locations [32]. As shown in this study, the integrated USLE-GIS model can provide the information needed. As demonstrated in this study, models can be an important tool to support management decisions when used carefully. Therefore, beside model accuracy, it is important to realise what is the information that is provided by a model [32]. The GIS-USLE is the only model applied in this study is limited to gross annual estimation of soil erosion, without taking into consideration of a storm magnitude or event based magnitude that may influence the amount of soil eroded and transported from a catchment. It only allows assessment of on-site soil erosion problem by providing the spatial distribution of highly eroded area and an indication of local soil erosion of on-site erosion problems. Nevertheless, the on-site erosion predicted using this model can be used for identification of sediment sources for a better and sustainable catchment management.

National Seminar on the Natural Heritage of Northern Peninsular Malaysia 5-6 October 2009

CONCLUSIONS Soil erosion involves complex and heterogeneous hydrological processes [18] and as demonstrated in this study, it can be use to simulate these processes. This study has shown that data sources processed from paper maps and the correct implementation of the USLE factors have sufficient qualities to access an appropriate digital modulation of the real world impact on the environment. The USLE model integrated with GIS could be used to calculate soil erosion at any point (non dimensional) in a catchment experiencing net erosion. As shown in this study, it is simple to use and conceptually easy to understand and can provide spatial information of local and on-site soil erosion within a catchment and makes a large scale monitoring simple and fast. However, the most important limitations of the Universal Soil Loss Equation are that (1) gullying or mass movement are not considered; (2) deposition of sediment cannot occur within the area under consideration; and (3) the slope length and steepness factors must be determined only on the area that is contributing runoff. The greatest criticism of the USLE has been its ineffectiveness in applications outside the range of conditions for which it was developed [19] [20] [33]. The capability of integrated USLE-GIS model to provide spatial element of soil erosion within a catchment do have a clear added value, and can serve as tools to decide where and which measures should be taken to prevent on-site and off-site effects of soil erosion, and to assess the impacts of changes in land use. It is also important to note that the application of integrated USLE-GIS model or any other model for decision making and management requires awareness of the accuracy of the prediction and of the type of information provided by the model. Therefore, validation of the spatial patterns of the prediction is needed before a model can be used to support the development of environmental management plans for a better and sustainable catchment management. Acknowledgement The research project was financed by a short term research grant (304/ PHUMANITI/636047) from Universiti Sains Malaysia. The authors wish to thank the Drainage and Irrigation Department of Perlis for providing facilities, rainfall and water level records. REFERENCES [1] James P. M. Syvitski, Charles J. Vrsmarty, Albert J. Kettner, Pamela Green. 2005. Impact of Humans on the Flux of Terrestrial Sediment to the Global Coastal Ocean. Science Vol. 308. no. 5720, pp. 376 380. [2] Walling, D.E. 2006. Human impact on land-ocean sediment transport by the worlds rivers. Geomorphology 79, 192-216. [3] Wilkinson, B. H. 2005. Human as geologic agents: a deep time perspective. Geology 33, 161-164. [4] Minella, J.P.G., Merten, G.H., Walling D.E. & Reichert J.M. 2009. Changing sediment yield as an indicator of improved soil management practices in southern Brazil. doi:10.1016/j.catena.2009.02.020 [5] Ananda, J. & Herath, G. 2003. Soil erosion in developing countries: a socio-economic appraisal. J. of Environmental Management 68, 343-353. [6] Grepperud, S. 1995. Soil conservation and government policies in tropical areas: does aid worsen the incentives for arresting erosion. Agricultural Economics 12, 129-140.

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