1191 | 444 | Remote Sensing Techniques for Monitoring Land degradation due to Soil Erosion: A Case Study in the Nitra District of Slovakia | Tomáš Rusňák, Andrej Halabuk
Land degradation due to soil erosion is one of the major environmental concerns worldwide, affecting the sustainability of agricultural productivity and the health of ecosystems. Data regarding the actual scale of soil erosion is important information for conservation policies. Nevertheless, this kind of data is often unavailable on a large scale. Remote sensing techniques have become a powerful tool to monitor and assess land degradation. In this study, we used Sentinel 2 satellite imagery to detect soil erosion in the Nitra district in the western part of Slovakia. The Nitra district has an agricultural character and is significantly affected by erosion. We used a combination of Sentinel data and soil subtypes for classification. The Random Forest classification has been performed. We classified two classes – eroded soil and non-eroded soil. The results showed that the proposed method is effective in detecting soil erosion in the study area with an overall accuracy of 94.04%. Our findings show the potential of using remote sensing data on actual soil degradation by erosion. Remote sensing can be used as an efficient tool for monitoring and assessing soil erosion, aiding in the development of effective land management strategies. However, there are some limitations related to the variability of soil cover, the effect of clouds, shadows, vegetation, or residues after agricultural crops, and the spectral separability of each class.
Tomáš Rusňák, Andrej Halabuk
Institute of Landscape Ecology v. v. i., Slovak Academy of Sciences
ID Abstract: 444