Applied Engineering

| Peer-Reviewed |

Measuring Soil Loss and Sediment Deposit on Low Volume Rural Roads in Mt. Elgon Sub County, Trans-Nzoia and West Pokot Counties

Received: 06 March 2017    Accepted: 08 April 2017    Published: 24 May 2017
Views:       Downloads:

Share This Article

Abstract

Roads are key economic pillars for any economy, major low volume roads in Kenya are faced by a major problem of degradation and soil erosion. These roads have become of great environmental concern causing siltation and land degradation. The research is carried out in three counties of western Kenya and North Rift between High, mid and Low altitude areas. The research used purposive sampling to select the study roads and class E and D roads were selected for the study. Metered drop pins were used to estimate soil loss and soil deposition in the study roads, this was achieved by driving the peg into the ground and measuring the height in two weeks interval for a period of three months between November 2013 to March 2014. Side drain cross sectional areas were measured at specified intervals to obtain soil accumulation or soil loss. Soil movement and deposition was analysed and it was observed that a greater change occurred in the months of November and December 2013 with a deposition change of 11.1 cm compared to 8.80cm for the month of January and February 2014. Highest rate of erosion was recorded at -10.1cm in the rainy months and -6.64 cm in dry months. Total soil volume movement in three months was 8309.75 cm3 where Mt. Elgon Sub County exhibited the highest change of 3284 cm3.

DOI 10.11648/j.ae.20170101.13
Published in Applied Engineering (Volume 1, Issue 1, June 2017)
Page(s) 20-31
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Low Volume Roads, Soil Loss and Deposition, Rural Roads

References
[1] Ministry of Roads and Public Works- Roads 2000 (May 2005). Roads 2000 contract management manual, improvement works.
[2] BBC. (2014). Surface and interior erosion.
[3] Montgomery, David (2008). Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (1st ed). University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25806-8.
[4] Dayton, Leigh; (1992) "Pacific Islanders Were World's First Farmers," (New Scientist).
[5] Jungerius, P. D., J. Matundura, and J. A. M. Van De Ancker. "Road construction and gully erosion in West Pokot, Kenya." Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 27.11 (2002): 1237-1247.
[6] Eriksson. A, Kidanu A (2010). Guidelines for prevention and control of soil erosion in road works. International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22. Switzerland (2012).
[7] Hudson, N. (1981). Soil conservation. Cornell University Press. USA, New York.
[8] Hudson, N. (1993). Field measurement of soil erosion and runoff (Vol. 68). Food & Agriculture Org.
[9] International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), 2014.
[10] Whipple, K. X., & Tucker, G. E. (1999). Dynamics of the stream-power river incision model: Implications for height limits of mountain ranges, landscape response timescales, and research needs. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 104(B8), 17661-17674.
[11] Lotfalian, M., Parsakhoo, A., Kavian, A., & Hosseini, S. A. (2013). Runoff and sediment concentration of different parts of a road in Hyrcanian forests. Forest Science and Practice, 15(2), 144-151.
[12] Ajayi, Ayodele Ebenezer. "Ecology and Development Series No. 18, 2004.
[13] Jiongxin, X. (2004). Effect of human activities on overall trend of sedimentation in the lower Yellow River, China. Environmental Management, 33(5), 637-653.
Author Information
  • Department of Environmental Earth Sciences, University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya

  • Department of Environmental Earth Sciences, University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya

  • Department of Environmental Earth Sciences, University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya

Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    James Okinyi Manyara, Elias Ucakuwun, Thomas Munyao. (2017). Measuring Soil Loss and Sediment Deposit on Low Volume Rural Roads in Mt. Elgon Sub County, Trans-Nzoia and West Pokot Counties. Applied Engineering, 1(1), 20-31. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ae.20170101.13

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    James Okinyi Manyara; Elias Ucakuwun; Thomas Munyao. Measuring Soil Loss and Sediment Deposit on Low Volume Rural Roads in Mt. Elgon Sub County, Trans-Nzoia and West Pokot Counties. Appl. Eng. 2017, 1(1), 20-31. doi: 10.11648/j.ae.20170101.13

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    James Okinyi Manyara, Elias Ucakuwun, Thomas Munyao. Measuring Soil Loss and Sediment Deposit on Low Volume Rural Roads in Mt. Elgon Sub County, Trans-Nzoia and West Pokot Counties. Appl Eng. 2017;1(1):20-31. doi: 10.11648/j.ae.20170101.13

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.ae.20170101.13,
      author = {James Okinyi Manyara and Elias Ucakuwun and Thomas Munyao},
      title = {Measuring Soil Loss and Sediment Deposit on Low Volume Rural Roads in Mt. Elgon Sub County, Trans-Nzoia and West Pokot Counties},
      journal = {Applied Engineering},
      volume = {1},
      number = {1},
      pages = {20-31},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ae.20170101.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ae.20170101.13},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ae.20170101.13},
      abstract = {Roads are key economic pillars for any economy, major low volume roads in Kenya are faced by a major problem of degradation and soil erosion. These roads have become of great environmental concern causing siltation and land degradation. The research is carried out in three counties of western Kenya and North Rift between High, mid and Low altitude areas. The research used purposive sampling to select the study roads and class E and D roads were selected for the study. Metered drop pins were used to estimate soil loss and soil deposition in the study roads, this was achieved by driving the peg into the ground and measuring the height in two weeks interval for a period of three months between November 2013 to March 2014. Side drain cross sectional areas were measured at specified intervals to obtain soil accumulation or soil loss. Soil movement and deposition was analysed and it was observed that a greater change occurred in the months of November and December 2013 with a deposition change of 11.1 cm compared to 8.80cm for the month of January and February 2014. Highest rate of erosion was recorded at -10.1cm in the rainy months and -6.64 cm in dry months. Total soil volume movement in three months was 8309.75 cm3 where Mt. Elgon Sub County exhibited the highest change of 3284 cm3.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Measuring Soil Loss and Sediment Deposit on Low Volume Rural Roads in Mt. Elgon Sub County, Trans-Nzoia and West Pokot Counties
    AU  - James Okinyi Manyara
    AU  - Elias Ucakuwun
    AU  - Thomas Munyao
    Y1  - 2017/05/24
    PY  - 2017
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ae.20170101.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ae.20170101.13
    T2  - Applied Engineering
    JF  - Applied Engineering
    JO  - Applied Engineering
    SP  - 20
    EP  - 31
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2994-7456
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ae.20170101.13
    AB  - Roads are key economic pillars for any economy, major low volume roads in Kenya are faced by a major problem of degradation and soil erosion. These roads have become of great environmental concern causing siltation and land degradation. The research is carried out in three counties of western Kenya and North Rift between High, mid and Low altitude areas. The research used purposive sampling to select the study roads and class E and D roads were selected for the study. Metered drop pins were used to estimate soil loss and soil deposition in the study roads, this was achieved by driving the peg into the ground and measuring the height in two weeks interval for a period of three months between November 2013 to March 2014. Side drain cross sectional areas were measured at specified intervals to obtain soil accumulation or soil loss. Soil movement and deposition was analysed and it was observed that a greater change occurred in the months of November and December 2013 with a deposition change of 11.1 cm compared to 8.80cm for the month of January and February 2014. Highest rate of erosion was recorded at -10.1cm in the rainy months and -6.64 cm in dry months. Total soil volume movement in three months was 8309.75 cm3 where Mt. Elgon Sub County exhibited the highest change of 3284 cm3.
    VL  - 1
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

  • Sections