Assessment and Mapping of Soils Erosion and Crop Loss by Impact of Heavy Rainfall in Northern Dry Zone of Karnataka, India

The distribution of rainfall may be adequate or inadequately affected by climate change in the arid and semi-arid regions of India. Excess rainfall in a dry region and undulating topography cause more soil erosion and crop loss in a particular year. The current study used the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) in heavy rainfall zones in conjunction with Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS to create the soil erosion map in the Almarshikeri 2 micro watershed. The RUSLE model incorporated a number of parameters for soil erosion assessment, such as soil erodibility (K), rainfall erosivity (R), slope steepness and length (LS), land use and land cover (C), and conservation measures (P). A 563 hectare watershed estimated soil loss is 114.68 tons. Assessment of soil loss in different landforms shows that average erosion is 5.92 t ha −1 from lowland and total loss from upland is 41.99 tons. Whereas, in soil types, the average range was from 4.30 to 4.79 t ha −1 and total soil losses were 46.39 tons in black soil, followed by red (32.87), brown (21.50), and problem soil (13.92). In major land use systems, soil erosion is severe in cotton and groundnut cropping system. Similarly, crop loss is higher in the lowland (23.14%) and midland (22.50%) compared with the upland (14.73%). The quantitative maximums of agricultural yield loss from groundnuts (− 54.98%), cotton (− 44.59%), ragi (− 40%), and maize (− 31.73%) are affected by heavy rains. Quantifying soil and crop loss will help adopt different soil conservation practices and crop management strategies in the watershed.