Analysing soil degradation through hydric erosion. Case study - Ialomita County, Romania

Analy sing soil degradation through hydric erosion. Case study – Ialomița County, Romania. Landscape degradation through different processes has intensified and extended spatially to all geographical regions at global level, irrespective of the social, economic or political background. The main process which contributes to soil degradation is hydric erosion. Surface drainage, which is the most common form of erosion, affects hundreds of thousands of hectares worldwide. Surface runoff therefore demands more attent ion, as it can produce advanced land degradation, up to the stage when it cannot be used any more for agricultural purposes. In our country, hydric erosion affects nearly 50% of all agricultural and arable land, with an annual estimated damage of about 126 million tonnes of rich soil [1] [2]. The Ialomița county is located on the lower reach of the homonymous river, in a landscape dominated by lowlands, having more than 80% of its administrative area used for agricultural purposes. Soil degradation through different hydric processes would therefore have major implications on agricultural yields, as it would reduce the productivity potential of the soil land cover. Consequently, the main goal of the present research was to quantify the amount of soil loss thr ough hydric erosion for the Ialomița county’s territory, using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and GIS - based techniques. This study also relies on many scientific references, field observations and in - depth analysis of thematic map