The Major Environmental Degradation, Soil Erosion & Its Impact on The Environment
Soil erosion is the Washing away of the top Soil by running water, wind or gravity.During erosion, the topsoil and the entire nutrient content are being carried away. The situation doesn't only hurt the crop farmers but also a lot of settlement and road users as well. The obvious effects are the uprooting of the roots of most crops leading to low productivity of crop yield. Most of landscapes are affected if the land has been reserved for building. The road users find it very difficult to use the eroded lands due to the scurry nature of the roads. All these are due to the quest for quick money for quick money and the need for wood products have caused the abuse of the forests. With the long use of the for galamsey ( surface mining) are sometimes leading to the takeover by running water on the affected surface.
The two major types of soil erosion are:
1• Geological/Natural erosion.
2• Accelerated soil erosion/man made erosion.
Geological soil erosion is a natural and unavoidable process of soil erosion which occur slowly but the impact cause great soil degradation.
The Accelerated soil erosion is related to the activities of man and his unplanned development of natural resources.
Erosion can be sub divided into according to the Agents of erosion. Base on the Agents we have water erosion and wind erosion.
The Agent of water erosion is basically water run off on the surface the bare land or land with low vegetation cover. The erodible land begins from the splashing when the soil is dismantle or disturbed. At the severe bare land where there isn't vegetative cover, sheet erosion follow where the run off uniformly carry away the top soil. These sheet erosion creat channels as time goes on. If strong measures aren't taken to curb the situation the channels can be widening and creat gully which is deeper cut.
Obviously there stages that water erosion take place. These are:
a• Detachment or loosening of the soil particles and breaking up of the soil aggregate. This is mostly seen during the splashing stage where the water drops affect the soil to separate apart.
b• Transportation of soil particles and aggregate by run off water. In this case, when the soil particles are broken down, the next step is for the soil to be transported from its place to another place.
c• Disposition of the soil in in the lowermost reach. It's seen that the water finally deposit the soil particles at wrong place where it doesn't need.
The prevailing Factor affecting water erosion are:
1• Rainfall: The frequent rainfall speed up the rate of run off on bear land. This gradually take away the top soil and the entire nutrients.
2• Slope/Gradient: The rate of run off is higher on slope lands than on flat lands.
3• The vegetation cover is a major determiner of water erosion. Hence bare lands are easily eroded compare with vegetative lands.
4• Soil: This has to do with soil structure, texture, drainage ability and organic matter content. The ability of the organic matter to bind the soil particles together is very great way to protect the soil from erosion.
Erosion control measures:
There are several methods in which one can controlled soil erosion. It's very good to embark on afforestation project places where they have bare lands. This can really help to mitigate soil erosion. This greatly help to protect the environment from being degraded. Places where erosion has taken over many places especially where the rill erosion has began , we can fill soil in sacks and align on the ways of the channels. Grasses can be planted and guided to grow at areas prone to soil erosion.
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