Abstract

ORTIZ, Patricio Rivera et al. Gully erosion measurement with satellite images. Terra Latinoam [online]. 2014, vol.32, n.1, pp.13-21. ISSN 2395-8030.

Soil erosion is one of the most aggressive forms of degradation of agricultural land or land with any other use. The Altiplano region of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, is a semi-arid area located west of the Sierra Madre Oriental and exhibits severe erosion. Remontant gully erosion occurring in two agricultural soils (Chihue and Alamar) of the ejido San Antonio was assessed using satellite images and Arc Explorer 2(tm) software. To estimate the erosion that occurred during the period 2003-2010, we used satellite images taken in 2003 and 2006. Geographic coordinates of the gully heads were obtained in situ through direct measurement on the ground in 2010. The gullies under study grew 46.0 m at the Chihue site and 38.2 m at the Alamar site, evidencing severe soil loss of about 7299.8 Mg and 2620.5 Mg, respectively, over the seven year period. These amounts represent 1042.8 Mg of soil lost by remontant erosion each year at the main head of the first site and 374.4 Mg year-1 at the second site. Soil lost through remontant erosion on cultivated lands of the San Antonio ejido is higher than the rate of erosion considered tolerable: 1.8 Mg ha-1 year-1.

Keywords : degradation of soil; remontant erosion.

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