Use of remote sensing, GIS and C++ for soil erosion assessment in the Shakkar River basin, India

Soil is an essential resource for human livelihoods. Soil erosion is now a global environmental crisis that threatens the natural environment and agriculture. This study aimed to assess the annual rate of soil erosion using distributed information for topography, land use and soil, with a remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS) approach and comparison of simulated with observed sediment loss. The Shakkar River basin, situated in the Narsinghpur and Chhindwara districts of Madhya Pradesh, India, was selected for this study. The universal soil loss equation (USLE) with RS and GIS was used to predict the spatial distribution of soil erosion occurring in the study area on a grid-cell basis. Thematic maps of rainfall erosivity factor (R), soil erodibility factor (K), topographic factor (LS), crop/cover management factor (C), and conservation/support practice factor (P) were prepared using annual rainfall data, soil map, digital elevation model (DEM) and an executable C++ program, and a satellite image of the study area in the GIS environment. The annual rate of soil erosion was estimated for a 15-year period (1992–2006) and was found to vary between 6.45 and 13.74\ua0t\ua0ha\ua0year, with an average annual rate of 9.84\ua0t\ua0ha\ua0year. The percentage deviation between simulated and observed values varies between 2.68% and 18.73%, with a coefficient of determination (R) of 0.874

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Not AvailableThe present investigation was carried out to evaluate the performance of tomato in polyhouse with drip and mulch at AICRP on Plasticulture Engineering and Technologies experimental field of College of Agricultural Engineering and Post-Harvest Technology (CAEPHT), Central Agricultural University (CAU), Ranipool, Sikkim, India. The experiment comprised of three treatments [viz. T1: Drip with no mulch, T2: Drip with mulch, and T3: No drip no mulch (control)] with four replications following Randomized Block Design (RBD). Black low density poly ethylene (LDPE) sheets of 50 micron thickness were used as mulch. The plant growth, yield and WUE were significantly affected by T2 as compared to T1 and T3 inside polyhouse. The maximum number of leaves (9.84, 24.14 and 33.29) and tallest plant (38.40, 102.19 and 170.16 cm), respectively at 30, 60 and 90 DAT was observed in T2. Similar trend in yield attributes, the highest yield/ plant (1548 g) and yield/ m2 (3490 g) was observed in T2, although at par with T1. The use of drip in combination with mulching, not only increased the yield but also saving irrigation water (62%) as compared to conventional method with highest WUE (58.19 kg m-3). The study thus reveals that drip irrigation with mulch give better water use efficiency, increased yield and thereby achieving the prime objective of ‘more crop per dropAICRP on PET ICA