One crucial metric for estimating a reservoirs and dam’s lifespan is sedimentation. It is dependent upon sediment output, which in turn is dependent upon soil erosion. The study area, the Aguat Wuha Dam, was located in Simada woreda, of northwestern parts of Ethiopia. And the study's goal was to use Arc GIS and RUSLE adjusted to Ethiopian conditions to assess potential soil erosion and sediment output from the watershed and identify hotspot locations for appropriate planning for erosion and sedimentation problem management techniques to make the outputs of the dam project more productive and effective for the proposed and suggested purpose of the dam. To predict the geographical patterns of soil erosion in the watershed, the Geographic Information System (GIS) was combined with the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE). A soil erosion map was produced using ArcGIS by utilizing all of the model's parameters, including Erosivity, erodibility, steepness, land use, land cover, and supportive practice factors. The watershed's yearly soil loss varies from 0 to 413.86 tons/ha. In order to determine the erosion hotspot area, the average annual soil loss value was discovered to be 9.24 tons/ha/year and was categorized into six erosion severity classes: low, moderate, high, very high, severe, and very severe. These findings indicated that 162.57 ha and 699.17 ha of the watershed were considered to be extremely and severely vulnerable to soil erosion, respectively. It was discovered that the anticipated sediment yield supplied to the outlet varied from 0 to 104.94 tons/ha/year. By standing from the implications of the assessments of the geological, geotechnical, topographical, and socioenvironmental considerations Watershed management is the most effective way to reduce the amount of sediment produced and the amount that enters the reservoir among the several reservoir sedimentation control options that are available.
| Published in | American Journal of Mathematical and Computer Modelling (Volume 10, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ajmcm.20251002.11 |
| Page(s) | 29-53 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Aguat Wuha Dam Catchment, RUSLE, Sedimentation, Sediment Delivery Ratio, Sediment Yield, Soil Loss, Watershed
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APA Style
Yigzaw, G. A., Alamrew, B. T., Ashebir, A., Getahun, E., Mengstie, L. (2025). Assessing Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield in the Aguat Wuha Dam Catchment, Northwest Ethiopia Using RUSLE and GIS. American Journal of Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 10(2), 29-53. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajmcm.20251002.11
ACS Style
Yigzaw, G. A.; Alamrew, B. T.; Ashebir, A.; Getahun, E.; Mengstie, L. Assessing Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield in the Aguat Wuha Dam Catchment, Northwest Ethiopia Using RUSLE and GIS. Am. J. Math. Comput. Model. 2025, 10(2), 29-53. doi: 10.11648/j.ajmcm.20251002.11
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ajmcm.20251002.11,
author = {Getie Amsal Yigzaw and Biniyam Taye Alamrew and Adna Ashebir and Ephrem Getahun and Likinaw Mengstie},
title = {Assessing Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield in the Aguat Wuha Dam Catchment, Northwest Ethiopia Using RUSLE and GIS
},
journal = {American Journal of Mathematical and Computer Modelling},
volume = {10},
number = {2},
pages = {29-53},
doi = {10.11648/j.ajmcm.20251002.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajmcm.20251002.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajmcm.20251002.11},
abstract = {One crucial metric for estimating a reservoirs and dam’s lifespan is sedimentation. It is dependent upon sediment output, which in turn is dependent upon soil erosion. The study area, the Aguat Wuha Dam, was located in Simada woreda, of northwestern parts of Ethiopia. And the study's goal was to use Arc GIS and RUSLE adjusted to Ethiopian conditions to assess potential soil erosion and sediment output from the watershed and identify hotspot locations for appropriate planning for erosion and sedimentation problem management techniques to make the outputs of the dam project more productive and effective for the proposed and suggested purpose of the dam. To predict the geographical patterns of soil erosion in the watershed, the Geographic Information System (GIS) was combined with the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE). A soil erosion map was produced using ArcGIS by utilizing all of the model's parameters, including Erosivity, erodibility, steepness, land use, land cover, and supportive practice factors. The watershed's yearly soil loss varies from 0 to 413.86 tons/ha. In order to determine the erosion hotspot area, the average annual soil loss value was discovered to be 9.24 tons/ha/year and was categorized into six erosion severity classes: low, moderate, high, very high, severe, and very severe. These findings indicated that 162.57 ha and 699.17 ha of the watershed were considered to be extremely and severely vulnerable to soil erosion, respectively. It was discovered that the anticipated sediment yield supplied to the outlet varied from 0 to 104.94 tons/ha/year. By standing from the implications of the assessments of the geological, geotechnical, topographical, and socioenvironmental considerations Watershed management is the most effective way to reduce the amount of sediment produced and the amount that enters the reservoir among the several reservoir sedimentation control options that are available.
},
year = {2025}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Assessing Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield in the Aguat Wuha Dam Catchment, Northwest Ethiopia Using RUSLE and GIS AU - Getie Amsal Yigzaw AU - Biniyam Taye Alamrew AU - Adna Ashebir AU - Ephrem Getahun AU - Likinaw Mengstie Y1 - 2025/04/29 PY - 2025 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajmcm.20251002.11 DO - 10.11648/j.ajmcm.20251002.11 T2 - American Journal of Mathematical and Computer Modelling JF - American Journal of Mathematical and Computer Modelling JO - American Journal of Mathematical and Computer Modelling SP - 29 EP - 53 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2578-8280 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajmcm.20251002.11 AB - One crucial metric for estimating a reservoirs and dam’s lifespan is sedimentation. It is dependent upon sediment output, which in turn is dependent upon soil erosion. The study area, the Aguat Wuha Dam, was located in Simada woreda, of northwestern parts of Ethiopia. And the study's goal was to use Arc GIS and RUSLE adjusted to Ethiopian conditions to assess potential soil erosion and sediment output from the watershed and identify hotspot locations for appropriate planning for erosion and sedimentation problem management techniques to make the outputs of the dam project more productive and effective for the proposed and suggested purpose of the dam. To predict the geographical patterns of soil erosion in the watershed, the Geographic Information System (GIS) was combined with the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE). A soil erosion map was produced using ArcGIS by utilizing all of the model's parameters, including Erosivity, erodibility, steepness, land use, land cover, and supportive practice factors. The watershed's yearly soil loss varies from 0 to 413.86 tons/ha. In order to determine the erosion hotspot area, the average annual soil loss value was discovered to be 9.24 tons/ha/year and was categorized into six erosion severity classes: low, moderate, high, very high, severe, and very severe. These findings indicated that 162.57 ha and 699.17 ha of the watershed were considered to be extremely and severely vulnerable to soil erosion, respectively. It was discovered that the anticipated sediment yield supplied to the outlet varied from 0 to 104.94 tons/ha/year. By standing from the implications of the assessments of the geological, geotechnical, topographical, and socioenvironmental considerations Watershed management is the most effective way to reduce the amount of sediment produced and the amount that enters the reservoir among the several reservoir sedimentation control options that are available. VL - 10 IS - 2 ER -
Department of Geology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
Department of Geology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Injibara University, Injibara, Ethiopia
