ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF SOIL EROSION ON LAKNAVARAM LAKE BASIN

The aim of this work is to estimate soil erosion on Laknavaram lake basin, JayashankarBhupalpally district, Telangana. Soils play a major role in production of food, storage of water, nutrients and organic matter. Loss of soils effects its ability to perform these functions. Soil loss reduces its potential in crop production, damages drainage network, decreases the capacity of hydraulic structures. Estimation of soil erosion in this study has been done using USLE model. The USLE was developed from soil erosion plot and rainfall simulator experiments. The USLE is composed of six factors to estimate the average annual soil loss (A). The equation includes rainfall erosivity factor(R), soil erodibility factor (K), the topographic factors (L and S), cover management(C), practice management (P).The equation takes the simple product form: A=R.K.LS.C.P (Where LS is calculated together as a single factor).