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A considerable amount of plant supportive top soil removal due to water erosion is a major concern at present. The semi-arid Chambal Badlands is one of the regions, where top soil loss is a growing concern for centuries. A huge quantity of soil loss in the region experiences every monsoon season. Quantifying soil loss is a challenging due to its severely dissected topography. The objective of this study is to estimate and map the mean annual soil loss as well as sediment yield in most severely soil erosion affected district of Morena in Chambal region. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation and Sediment Delivery Ratio with Integration of Geospatial Techniques have been applied using various open sources data to address the objectives. It has been found that soil erosion has been varied in 1985, 2005 and 2014 respectively. In the year 2005, the soil loss has been reduced compared to 1985, which has been higher again in 2014 (0-66.00 tons/hectare/year in 2005 increased to 0-67.10 tons/hectare/year in 2014), especially when the total waste land has been reduced substantially. The area seems to be going through active erosional process which is subsided by the anthropogenic process in a form of gully/ravine land levelling. The ravine levelled lands are prone to further soil loss in a long run. Therefore, proper management practice needs to be introduced to prevent further soil loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐resolution multi‐temporal digital elevation model (DEM) are key to accurate mapping of gully erosion volume change studies. Owing to the lack of multi‐temporal DEM at a high spatial resolution, gully development rate, and gully erosion‐fill volume change estimates in the Indian badlands are poorly studied. Our study explored the use of multi‐temporal TerraSAR‐X add‐on for digital elevation measurement (TanDEM‐X) derived elevation models to quantify the erosion volume and gully susceptibility mapping in the Chambal badlands, Central India. The average volume of gully erosion based on the DEM subtraction method in the study area was found to be 135 × 105 m3, and the estimated annual rate of soil erosion was ~284 t hr−1 yr−1. Using machine learning models, we trained these data for gully erosion susceptibilities and volume prediction for a larger study region; and validated the results with independent samples. The accuracy of the model in terms of area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) values has reached 0.85 for training and 0.87 for validation, indicating satisfactory model performance. After validation, the best fit model was implemented onto a testing site (no multi‐temporal DEM available) in order to predict erosion zones and erosion volume estimation. The model predicted that about 40% of the area is highly affected by gully erosion, with the maximum gullying process in the north‐Central and lowest in the southwest parts of the testing area. The research framework presented in this study can be useful in estimating the erosion rate in the badlands of the Chambal Valley and can be used effectively in ravine reclamation projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study report on the nature of aridity dynamics in semi-arid agro climatic zone of eastern Rajasthan for a definite period, 1985-2015. Topics include that semi-arid and sub-humid regions are Ajmer, and Jaipur; and the enhancement of temperature and evapotranspiration has effected aridity and climatic parameters.

Land Degradation indicates the destruction and decline of global ecosystem's health. The study primarily related to status of land degradation of Silabati River basin which lies in eastern Chotanagpur. The present river basin is the representative of an area between Archean geology dominated in western parts of Chotanagpur plateau and recent alluvial deposited Ganga river basin in east. After originating in Chotanagpur plateau, Silabati River flows through plateau fringe of undulating surface. It flows through the western 'Rarh'1 areas of West Bengal. This is also one of the intense agriculture dependent population area of eastern India. Land degradation status is observed by overlaying the different physical (geomorphology, soil, geology etc.) as well as anthropogenic (LULC change, population pressure, forest cover, irrigation etc.) components. All of the factors have weightage with a certain value in relation the vulnerability of the land degradation. After that different factors weightage rasters have multiplied by raster calculator. The multiplied raster helps to identify different land degradation classes with different vulnerability. The upper course of basin which is characterised by undulating topography, less fertile soil, high water erosion is more vulnerable to degradation. Whereas, anthropogenic factors related land degradation dominates lower reaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ravines found along the Chambal River are among the most severe types of gully erosion found in semi-arid India. This paper estimates the extent and areal expansion of ravines over 40 years in the Lower Chambal Valley and provides a classification scheme to understand ravine characteristics in the region. To examine the implications of ravines on socioeconomic development and livelihoods of the people in the area, a mixed method approach has been followed. A combination of spatial and statistical tests has been run to examine the overall status of land degradation and its impact in the area concerned. Village-level socioeconomic data have been integrated with physical and environmental parameters in a GIS environment, which has been supplemented with findings from a qualitative survey in a few villages of the study region. The results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between indices of natural resources availability and socioeconomic development. A majority of villages within ravines were found to be very poor in development. In this fragile environment, people's livelihoods are being adversely affected because of land degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on issues associated with land degradation by considering the perceptions of farmers living in the semiarid region of the Chambal Valley, India. It considers the link between environmental degradation and poverty in agrarian regions. Demographic information for the area is provided which discusses literacy, forestation, small farms, levels of marketization, and water use in agriculture. Household surveys taken in villages in the area revealed an understanding of the mechanics of land degradation and an acknowledgment that losses in land use and lessened fertility impacted households' sense of security and level of income.