Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 MSc, Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute, Iran
2 MSc, Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute, Iran
3 Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, Tehran University, Iran
Abstract
The rate of soil erosion and sediment yield depends on different factors. Vegetation cover is more variable factor effecting occurrence of soil erosion in comparison to the other factors in a given watershed. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the role of canopy cover resulting from land management on sediment yield. Taleghan watershed was selected as a study area due to the availability of sufficient data. Necessary information was provided for MPSIAC model and was made in GIS environment and all needed calculations were done for preparing sediment yield map. The result of the comparison of the calculated and the estimated sediment yield indicated similarity of them (i.e. 98.3% similarity). For impact assessment of vegetation cover effect on sediment control, canopy cover was changed in a range of ±5 to 25% percent with 5% interval in both good and bad conditions. The effect of these changes was applied to bare soil percentage as well. The related thematic maps were prepared and sediment yield was determined. The result showed that sediment yield varied because of changing canopy cover. The increase and decrease of canopy cover by 25%, affected the sediment yield to change by -29.6% and 26.8% respectively.
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