Abstract:
Estimating the rate of soil erosion generally takes time, money, and energy.
There are many parameters that must be accommodated, such as the physical
properties of the soil, land cover, rainfall, topography, and so on. One alternative
method for estimating erosion rates is to use a remote sensing approach. The aim of
this research is to estimate the rate of soil erosion in the Special Purpose Forest Area
of the University of Lambung Mangkurat (KHDTK ULM) Mandiangin, using the E30
model and Sentinel-2 imagery. The erosion rate are measured directly in the field
with a number of sample points. According to the E30 model concept, field erosion
samples are only measured on land that has a slope of 300. The topographic data
itself is extracted from DEMNAS data. Meanwhile, soil bulk density data was
obtained from https://soilgrids.org/, and solum data was taken from
https://daac.ornl.gov/. From the Sentinel-2 imagery, Normalized Difference
Vegetation Index (NDVI) data was extracted, which is one of the parameters in the
E30 model. The estimated results of the erosion rate at KHDTK ULM Mandiangin
show that, in general, the highest erosion rate at KHDTK ULM Mandiangin is around
480 tons/ha/year. Additionally, almost 80% of the KHDTK ULM Mandiangin area has
a very serious erosion hazard level. Of course, the fastest rate of erosion is located
on hill slopes with steep topography. Apart from having steep topography, one of the
factors causing the high rate of erosion at KHDTK ULM is the thin soil layer and the
lack of dense forest cover. This finding indicates the need to conserve vegetation
cover on steep lands
