Soil erosion and sediment yields are the current limitations and future threats to agriculture, water resources and hydropower projects particularly in developing countries. Estimating the extent and comprehending the spatial distribution of hotspot area is crucial to implement evidence-based soil and water conservation (SWC) measures with limited resources. The study used RUSLE and SDR models in ArcGIS 10.8 environment. The RUSLE model was found to be highly sensitive to C factor followed by LS factor. The result indicated that the annual soil loss varies from 0 to 359.99 t ha⁻¹yr⁻¹ with 22.31 t ha⁻¹yr⁻¹ as a mean annual. Besides, the estimated sediment yield ranged from 0 to 42.5 t ha⁻¹yr⁻¹ with a mean value of 12.02 t ha⁻¹yr⁻¹. The finding revealed that the central west (SW_5) and northeast (SW_4) parts of the watershed yield higher sediment. The result also signified that about 52.9% of the eroded materials including soil and nutrients are transferred to the outlet. The outcome of our finding undoubtedly aids in the identification of hotspot areas for the adoption of appropriate SWC measures. Hence, adopting RUSLE and SDR for Gununo watershed and another watershed having similar biophysical and environmental factors is suggested.

Groundwater level predictive monitoring is necessary to address accelerated aquifer depletion and ensure sustainable management under increasing climatic and anthropogenic pressures. This study uses machine learning approaches to model groundwater level (GWL) dynamics in six observation wells in the Ruataniwha Basin, New Zealand. These models are enhanced with seasonal decomposition techniques. This study uses both static properties and dynamic variables to capture hydrogeological heterogeneity. Random Forest (RF) and Support Vector Machine (SVM), with seasonal decomposition preprocessing, were developed for GWL modelling. The models were trained on 80% of the dataset and tested using the remaining 20% of the data. Model accuracy was assessed using five statistical metrics: mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), the coefficient of determination (R²), mean absolute percent error (MAPE), and percent bias (PBIAS). Model uncertainty was analyzed using Bayesian Model Averaging combined with the p-factor and d-factor at the 95% confidence level. The results demonstrate that both models delivered strong predictive performance across training, testing, and full period evaluations. However, the RF model demonstrated a marginally superior predictive accuracy by achieving lower errors (MAE: 0.013–0.174; RMSE: 0.04–0.283), better bias control (PBIAS ≈ 0%), and slightly tighter error bounds in most wells. Uncertainty quantification revealed that models provided a minimum p-factor of 0.878, capturing more than 87% of the observed GWL data within the uncertainty bounds. Comparing the results of both models, the RF model has higher p-factor values ranging from 0.878 to 0.976 with precise interval widths (d-factor: 0.436–0.769), indicating its reliability for adaptive groundwater management.

BackgroundIn Ethiopia, soil and water conservation activities were started after the famines of 1973 and 1985. Following this, different conservation measures were implemented by the government, non-government organizations, and the community to facilitate the optimum level of production from a given area of land while keeping soil loss below a critical value. This study was conducted at Wolaita, Hadiya, Kambata Tambaro, and Dawro Zones of Southern Ethiopia. It was designed to identify indigenous and introduced soil and water conservation practices, measure and describe identified practices, and document the identified practice for further reference. ResultsThe result revealed that three types of soil and water conservation practices namely biological, physical, and agronomical were implementing in the study areas. The result from the technical evaluation showed that soil bund and fanya juu has channel depth and embankment height lower than the recommended dimension. The result also indicated that less attention was given to indigenous soil and water conservation practices. Besides, the sustainability gap in constructed conservation practices was widely perceived.ConclusionsFarmers in the study area are well acquainted with soil erosion, its cause, and consequent reduction in land productivity. They confirm that implementing SWC measures are insurance to sustain and boost soil fertility and land productivity. In southern Ethiopia government and peoples were invested much more time, money, knowledge, and manpower to construct SWC measures. But, year by year structures get damage and yet seem not substantial to achieve the sector of sustainable agriculture. Besides, the study revealed that identified practices such as traditional cutoff drain, fanya juu, soil bund, stone-faced soil bund, fanya juu, brushwood, and gabion check-dams have technical, social, and institutional difficulties. The major gap observed with indigenous conservation practices is, it had been taken less attention by different stakeholders including GOs, NGOs, and research institutes. As a result, their respective dimension was not modified, effective measures were not up-scaled and circulated to other areas having similar agroecology and farming system. Thus, apparently, traditional conservation measures are aggravating soil erosion and their construction did not consider the downstream effect on dwelling community, water bodies, and aquatic lives.

BackgroundIn Ethiopia, soil and water conservation activities were started after the famines of 1973 and 1985. Following this, different conservation measures were implemented by the government, non-government organizations, and the community to facilitate the optimum level of production from a given area of land while keeping soil loss below a critical value. This study was conducted at Wolaita, Hadiya, Kambata Tambaro, and Dawro Zones of Southern Ethiopia. It was designed to identify indigenous and introduced soil and water conservation practices, measure and describe identified practices, and document the identified practice for further reference. ResultsThe result revealed that three types of soil and water conservation practices namely biological, physical, and agronomical were implementing in the study areas. The result from the technical evaluation showed that soil bund and fanya juu has channel depth and embankment height lower than the recommended dimension. The result also indicated that less attention was given to indigenous soil and water conservation practices. Besides, the sustainability gap in constructed conservation practices was widely perceived.ConclusionsFarmers in the study area are well acquainted with soil erosion, its cause, and consequent reduction in land productivity. They confirm that implementing SWC measures are insurance to sustain and boost soil fertility and land productivity. In southern Ethiopia government and peoples were invested much more time, money, knowledge, and manpower to construct SWC measures. But, year by year structures get damage and yet seem not substantial to achieve the sector of sustainable agriculture. Besides, the study revealed that identified practices such as traditional cutoff drain, fanya juu, soil bund, stone-faced soil bund, fanya juu, brushwood, and gabion check-dams have technical, social, and institutional difficulties. The major gap observed with indigenous conservation practices is, it had been taken less attention by different stakeholders including GOs, NGOs, and research institutes. As a result, their respective dimension was not modified, effective measures were not up-scaled and circulated to other areas having similar agroecology and farming system. Thus, apparently, traditional conservation measures are aggravating soil erosion and their construction did not consider the downstream effect on dwelling community, water bodies, and aquatic lives.

BackgroundIn Ethiopia, soil and water conservation activities were started after the famines of 1973 and 1985. Following this, different conservation measures were implemented by the government, non-government organizations, and the community to facilitate the optimum level of production from a given area of land while keeping soil loss below a critical value. This study was conducted at Wolaita, Hadiya, Kambata Tambaro, and Dawro Zones of Southern Ethiopia. It was designed to identify indigenous and introduced soil and water conservation practices, measure and describe identified practices, and document the identified practice for further reference. ResultsThe result revealed that three types of soil and water conservation practices namely biological, physical, and agronomical were implementing in the study areas. The result from the technical evaluation showed that soil bund and fanya juu has channel depth and embankment height lower than the recommended dimension. The result also indicated that less attention was given to indigenous soil and water conservation practices. Besides, the sustainability gap in constructed conservation practices was widely perceived. ConclusionsFarmers in the study area are well acquainted with soil erosion, its cause, and consequent reduction in land productivity. They confirm that implementing SWC measures are insurance to sustain and boost soil fertility and land productivity. In southern Ethiopia government and peoples were invested much more time, money, knowledge, and manpower to construct SWC measures. But, year by year structures get damage and yet seem not substantial to achieve the sector of sustainable agriculture. Besides, the study revealed that identified practices such as traditional cutoff drain, fanya juu, soil bund, stone-faced soil bund, fanya juu, brushwood, and gabion check-dams have technical, social, and institutional difficulties. The major gap observed with indigenous conservation practices is, it had been taken less attention by different stakeholders including GOs, NGOs, and research institutes. As a result, their respective dimension was not modified, effective measures were not up-scaled and circulated to other areas having similar agroecology and farming system. Thus, apparently, traditional conservation measures are aggravating soil erosion and their construction did not consider the downstream effect on dwelling community, water bodies, and aquatic lives.