Modelling sustainable land management programme intervention effect on soil loss rate in the watershed region

Abstract This paper modelled the sustainable land management programme intervention effect on soil loss rate in the Hoha and Temba watersheds, Western Ethiopia. In the area, the sustainable land management programme (SLMP) has been doing many soil–water conservation measurements since 2011. However, an assessment of the soil loss rate before and after the implementation of the project has not yet been conducted in the area because of operational issues and the high costs of gathering on‐ground data. Because of this, we have developed a Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) framework fully integrated with geographic information system (GIS) for high spatial resolution (30 m) soil erosion assessment in 2010 (before SLMP was implemented in the area) and 2015 and 2021 (after SLMP implemented in the area). The results showed that the mean annual soil loss rate of the study area was 13.04, 1.88 and 2.06 t ha −1 year −1 for the Hoha and 9.58, 1.53 and 1.68 t ha −1 year −1 for the Temba watershed in the years, 2010, 2015 and 2021, respectively. In line with this, our results also indicated an increment of forest cover and a reduction of bare land cover in both watersheds throughout the study time. In terms of soil loss reduction, SLMP has a significant role through the improvement in forest cover and reduction in bare land in both watersheds.