According to a recent study, about 70 percent of India’s cultivated land has been destroyed by soil erosion. It has been calculated that one billion tons of important nutrients in the top layer of soil get wasted due to soil erosion.
What is soil erosion?
The loss of top layer of soil as a result of rains, is known as soil erosion. The fact is that water is about 800 times heavier than air. It is also as heavy as the top layer of soil. Thus, whenever any drop of rain falls and hits the ground hard, it dislocates the soil thereby soil getting carried away with the flow of water.
Soil erosion carries a significant effect on the construction sites. The major reasons being, changing the elevation, continuous movement of heavy equipment and water run off.
Here are some simple ways to control soil erosion-
1. Soil Nails
In this method, a chain of steel bar is inserted into the soil and placed with the facing retaining walls. In this way, slope failures can be avoided as a result of resisting force applied by the walls.
2. RIPRAP
In this method, a large number of stones are dumped into geo textile membranes to prevent the chances of erosion. The areas such as lake shores and river beds are more prone to soil erosion.
3. Geotextiles
Geotextiles are the fabrics that create a grip in order to hold the soil tight. These are used for reinforcement, drainage and filtration.
4. French Drain
This system involves usage of underground piping which is used to keep the ground water away from soil.
5. Earth walls
This is the most popular technique which makes use of granular soil in order to retain soil on steep slopes.
6. Turbidity Barriers
This system makes use of geotextile membrane that could easily float on the surface of a water body. This system serves both the purposes that is protecting soil erosion as well as water contamination.
7. Concrete Articulated blocks
These blocks are used to hold the soil firmly. These blocks are interlocked to maintain the natural shape and slope of the embankments.
8. Access Mats
These mats are used on wet and soft grounds that allow the movement of heavy equipment without disturbing natural shape of embankments.
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Any information taken from here should be credited to Skymet Weather