Assessment of soil erosion using remote sensing techniques: A global review

Soil is considered to be an important component of the terrestrial ecosystem. It possesses inherent capability of food and biomass production and maintaining soil biodiversity. Both natural and anthropogenic activities are leading to soil erosion, hence directly affecting the soil fertility as well as food security. Among the different factors, soil erosion is one of the major constraints resulting in low productivity of soils as the macro as well as the micronutrients along with the organic matter are washed away with the soils. Moreover, soil organic carbon also moves out of the carbon cycle which results in depletion of soil fertility. Thus, the prime need in this alarming situation is to shift from our traditional ways of assessment of soil erosion to its estimation through remote sensing. Remote sensing technology proves to be a valuable tool in developing suitable models through utilization of advanced features of data storage and management, interpretation and display of spatial data. Moreover, integrated erosion forecasting models not only estimates the soil loss but also provides spatial distribution of the eroded material. Overall, the aim of this paper is to review the role of remote sensing in determining the extent of soil erosion and to highlight the lacuna associated with these techniques and recommendations for future applications. These would help the researchers to apply these advanced techniques more energetically in a wide range of agro-climatic zones and regions with variations that exists among the data availability and modelling at finer spatial and temporal scales.