Premium
TROPICAL RAINFALL EVENTS ON EROSION RATES INA RAPIDLY DEVELOPING URBAN AREA IN NIGERIA
Author(s) -
Jimoh H.I.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
singapore journal of tropical geography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1467-9493
pISSN - 0129-7619
DOI - 10.1111/j.0129-7619.2005.00205.x
Subject(s) - erosion , silt , wet season , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental science , tropics , urban area , dry season , geography , physical geography , geology , ecology , cartography , paleontology , geotechnical engineering , biology
Data collected on rainfall events covering one wet season in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria, were found to be highly correlated with the rate of erosion on all the representative land surface types found in the city – namely bare land, fallow land, short grass and tall tree cover. Of all the rainfall components, rainfall total was best at predicting the rate of soil erosion on all these surfaces. In addition, the study found that a significant constituent of all surfaces, silt which fell through seiver grades 1.18 mm did not cohere, therefore increasing the rate of erosion. However, when grass cover (regenerating with the rains) was at least 95 per cent, erosion was well controlled. Therefore, grass coverage before the onset of the wet season is recommended as an efficient and simple measure to manage erosion in this typical developing urban centre in Nigeria.