Methodologies for Assessment of Soil Degradation Due to Water Erosion

Abstract

Soil degradation due to water erosion is a serious threat to the quality of the soil, land, and water resources upon which man depends for his sustenance. Pimentel et al. (1995) estimated world wide costs of soil erosion to be about four hundred billion dollars per year, more than $70 per person per year. El-Swaify (1994), summarizing a recent study, indicated that water erosion had accounted for about 55% of the almost 2 billion ha of degraded soils in the world. There is no region of the globe where soil degradation due to water erosion is not a threat to the long-term sustainability of mankind.