Background: Soil erosion is one of the major causes of the topsoil loss, that decreases fertility in the agricultural land of a mountainous region. Spatial estimation of soil erosion is necessary for an agriculture-dependent country like Nepal for preparing erosion control plans. The purpose of this study was to estimate soil erosion of Dolakha using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model, which analyzes the effect of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) and slope exposition on soil erosion.
Results: The soil erosion rate had been categorized into 6 erosion classes based on the erosion severity, and 5.01% of the areas was found to be under extreme severe erosion risk (> 80 Mg ha-1yr-1) that need to address by decision-maker for reducing the risk of erosion. Followed by 10 % areas were classified under high to severe with rate of soil loss range from 10 to 80 Mg ha-1yr-1. While 15% and 70% areas were still remain in moderate and low risk zone respectively. The study demonstrated the northeastern part of district suffer high soil erosion risk due to steep slope and rugged landforms.
Conclusions: The result produce spatial distribution of soil erosion over Dolakha, which can be applied for conservation and management planning processes, at the policy level, by land use planners and decision-makers.