Land Cover Change

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According to Meyer and Turner (1992), land use refers to the human employment of the land while land cover denotes the physical and biotic structure of the land surface. In most instances the former drives the later, even though there are circumstances where the latter dictates and governs what kind of use the land is suitable and deemed for. Lambini (2006), explains it as: land use refers to the purpose of land cover exploitation by humans that’s why it can be defined as the factor that cause land cover change. The author goes further to sate land cover change comprises the shift of a cover to one or more types. There are at least two factors that cause land cover changes (when artificially instigated) the proximate: which is the direct …show more content…

Further stating, of the land degradation in the world about 85% which is associated with soil erosion, most of which occurred since the end of World War II. From Review of RUSL p1 Excessive erosion degrades the landscape, reduces soil productivity, increases the difficulty of establishing and maintaining vegetation, inconveniences mowing, and produces sediment that cause downstream damage. From USLE vs RUSLE Soil erosion consists of two-phases, detachment of individual soil particles from the soil mass and transportation by erosive agents (Paland Samanta,2011). And these two phases are commonly followed by deposition, a third step, where sufficient energy is no longer available. Soil erosion can occur due to various phenomenons and factors. Phenomenon’s being: natural forces (rain, wind, ice, snow, e.t.c) and artificial (deforestation, construction, mining, e.t.c). However the extent of this phenomenon’s effect on the rate of erosion is dependent on or to some extent governed by certain factors: such as land use, land cover soil properties, topography and so forth. 2.2. 1 Factors affecting soil …show more content…

A) Climatic Factor These factors are natural phenomenons that are the forces behind detachment and transportation of soil particles. They can be wind, precipitation, snow or gravity, for this study the focus will be precipitation. Precipitation causes soil erosion, as rain droplets hit the ground surface they cause the detachment of soil particles, making them susceptible to transportation, following the cumulative effect of the rainfall results in runoff being formed at which point this horizontal movement of water carries/washes away the detached particles, thereby eroding them. B) Soil Characteristic Factor Soil characteristics factor refers to the nature of the soil and its degree of susceptibility of to be eroded: detached and transported by erosive agents. This is highly dependent on the physical and chemical property of a given soil: which dictates the infiltration capacity of soils and their tendency to be dislodged and carried away. According to (Fangmeier et al., 2006), the properties that influence erosion include soil structure, texture, organic matter, water content, clay mineralogy, and density, as well as chemical and biological characteristics of the soil. Depending on such characters the erodability nature and extent of the soil

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