Quantification of the effectiveness of mitigation measures on erosion potential of soil with image analysis

Purpose Soil erosion is a complex global environmental problem as it leads to land degradation, increase in sedimentation, triggering landslides, and pollution of the water bodies. Due to their adaptability, economy, and sustainability, nature-based mitigation strategies for erosion prevention have recently been renewed and developed. However, the effectiveness of the mitigation measure with its effect on the erosion process has not been explored in the earlier studies. Keeping this in view, laboratory erosion experiments were conducted. Materials and methods Laboratory erosion experiments were conducted on bare soil, soil fiber, and soil-root specimens with different parameters to evaluate the erosion potential through soil loss rate using a sloping flume and rainfall simulator. A non-contact measurement option by images through the camera has been adopted for establishing the temporal erosion processes in soil. Results and discussion The process has been quantified in terms of erosion potential, defined by quantitative (quantity of sediment) and qualitative (eroded area) changes in the soil surface during the experiment under simulated rainfall conditions. The comparison of the eroded area to the final quantity of sediment was enumerated and found to have a good correlation. Conclusions The results obtained demonstrated the effectiveness of Indian goose grass depicting the changes from splash-induced rill erosion to effectively “no erosion.” The study also highlights the success and limitations of the image processing in quantifying the erosion process.