Determination of relationship between situation of soil erosion sensitivity and land use/land cover in inebolu basin soils

Soil and water resources are under several threats stemming from artificial and natural factors in fragile ecosystem. One of these threats is soil erosion due to misuse or inappropriate land use planning. In order to determine erosion risk cases using soil erodibility indexes, they occupy important place particularly for erosion researches. Soil erodibility is the resistance of soil to detach by rainfall impact or surface flow force. The main aim of this research is determination of relationship between situation of soil erosion sensitivity and land use/land cover in İnebolu Basin soils. In this study, it was determined dispersion ratio and resistance case of different soils found in İnebolu Basin to erosion using some soil erodibilities index and to compare their variability each other based on land use and land cover. This research was performed in İnebolu Basin located in Kastamonu province belonging to west part of Black Sea Region of Turkey. The study area is about 114 km2 and consists of 6 micro sub basins. Elevation of the study area locates between 0 m and 1360 m from sea level. In order to generate land use and land cover, satellite image dated 2013 and forest inventory map were used. Total 690 soil samples were collected from different depths (0-10, 10-20, 20-30 cm) by taking into consideration of land use/land cover pattern and topographic features. According to analysis results, erodibility mean values of the Basin varied between 0.07 and 0.093 t ha-1.MJ.mm-1 and K values are decreasing along with increasing soil depth. Dispersion ratio for each depth as mean values are changing between 20.21 and 22.28 on the other hand it was not found any statistical significance between dispersion ratio and land use/land cover (p>0.05). © 2017, Centenary University. All rights reserved.