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Gully erosion in South Eastern Tanzania: spatial distribution and topographic thresholds

2008; Elsevier BV; Volume: 52; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1127/0372-8854/2008/0052-0225

1864-1687

Wouter Achten, S. Mugogo, Elly Kafiriti, Jean Poesen, Jozef Deckers, Bart Muys,

Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology

Summary. Though gully erosion is often mentioned as a major process of land degradationin South Eastern Tanzania, little information is available on its distribution. The Makondeplateau and adjacent inland plains are of particular concern as they are densely populated andare major areas of cashew nuts production. The occurrence of gully erosion was assessed in 66villages selected by stratified random sampling in an area of 13,000 km 2 . Difference in suscep-tibility to gully erosion between landscape units was assess by determining topographicthreshold parameters of 22 gullies on the Makonde plateau and 14 in the inland plains. Over-all, gullies are common and spread equally over the different landscape units. Their occurrenceis positively associated with terrain roughness (Cramer’s V = 0.30; P = 0.05) and negatively withpopulation density ( V = 0.44; P 0.01). On the Makonde plateau occurrence of gully erosionis associated with the presence of roads, while on the inland plains it is predominantly foundin fields (