Characteristics of the River Valley Erosion as a Major Factor in Soil Conservation Planning

Abstract

THE post-war thought of planning and treatment of the problem of harness-ing the potential resources of the land by sound planning in soil and water con-servation has gained particular importance in every country and has opened up new avenues of research into the scientific and other aspects of the problem. Soil and water conservation has now come to be looked upon in a wider sense, as a rational approach towards the natural resources from waste or unscientific exploitation to conservation and economic utilization. In this connection, the principles underlying the multi-purpose river-valley schemes aim at both controlling the ill effects of floods, soil erosion, etc., and developing the beneficial aspects, such as, river-system development, irrigation, power generation, navigation and fisheries' protection in an attempt to bring about a unified development of the area under command. The successful out-come of such a project is largely governed by the soundness in the planning of soil and water conservation. Such a planning has, therefore, to be based on two inter-related and inter-dependent aspects of the problem, viz. soil conservation of the entire watershed and training and development of the river itself. While the former depends on the fuller and harmonious exploitation of the latter, the measure of success of the latter also rests considerably on the technical efficiency of the soil conservation technique adopted on the catchment of the river valley in its entirety.