Erosion is the lifting of soil layers or sediments due to stress caused by wind or water movement at the surface of the soil or bottom of the water. The erosion that occurs is influenced by natural factors naturally as well as by the actions of humans who are trying to cultivate the land and the environment for its sake.
Erosion Cause Factor
Every problem certainly has a cause, as well as erosion. Some of the factors that cause erosion include:
- Climate
Climate can affect erosion by determining rainfall erosive index. In addition, the climatic component of rainfall can affect the rate of erodibility continuously according to rain intensity that occurred.
- Land
The soil with its properties can determine the size of the erosion rate and is expressed as a factor of soil erodibility (soil sensitivity to erosion or soil resistance to erosion).
- Topography
The ability of soil to be eroded by water is affected by the topography of a region. The condition of the area that can wash away the soil as erosion sediment quickly is a region that has a large slope of the slope. While on the sloping areas will be less intensive rate of its erodibility, because it is more likely to occur inundation.
- Soil Cover Plants
Ground cover (vegetation) plays a role to keep the soil safer from the splashes that occur due to the fall of rain water to the soil surface. In addition to protecting from the rainfall points of rainfall, vegetation also serves to improve the soil structure with the help of roots that spread.
- Man
Humans can act as a cause of the rapid rate of erosion or suppress the rate of erosion. In the process of accelerating erosion, humans make many mistakes in environmental management, such as mining, forest exploitation, land dredging, and so forth. While in erosion rate erosion, human can do evaluation of land conservation by way of reforestation, making of terracing in agricultural area, and others.
The impact of erosion is divided into the impact on the site of the origin of erosion (on site) and the impact on the off-site.
The impact of soil erosion on site (on-site) is an impact that can be seen directly to the land manager in the form of decreased productivity. This resulted in the loss of production of increased use of fertilizer and the loss of layers of soil which eventually led to the occurrence of critical soil.
The effects of erosion on soil physical fertility include the occurrence of soil particles, changes in soil structure, decreased infiltration and storage capacity, and soil profile changes.
Efforts to Reduce Erosion
As in the previous section, that erosion can not simply be eliminated but can be reduced by human power. Although in fact the most influential factor in accelerating the rate of erosion is human, but it does not mean that humans can not do anything in reducing erosion. Everyone will surely be able to work like that, there must be awareness of each that must exist on the issue.
Efforts that can be done by humans are:
First, as humans must be aware of the problems of erosion and the impact that will arise and attack us ourselves.
Second, do not damage the forest ecosystem because the forest is a place that is very influential in the occurrence of erosion around it. If cutting trees in the forest immediately replaced with a new tree.
Third, do the cultivation of farmland wisely by creating a protective coating as you can see in https://www.maccaferri.com/my/solutions/slope-protection/.
Fourth, re-greening (reforestation) and conserve forests that have been deforested due to our human greed.