The soil erosion rate is the loss of soil mass over time for a specific land area. Erosion is a natural process caused by wind, rain and moving water. Soil erosion affects farming, construction projects and homeowners living near rivers, oceans and on terrestrial slopes. Excessive erosion is often caused by human activities, such as deforestation, road construction and intensive farming. You can calculate the soil erosion rate by measuring the loss of soil mass over a specific time period.
Currently PhD Candidate Nur Atirah is working in determining the erosion rate in:Primary forest and comparing the rates from agricultural plantations : Rubber and oil Palm along with 2 final year civil engineering undergraduate students Izhar and Fahmi. I need to mention here on the dedication and hard work that these students showed during field work. I am sure they would be fine engineers soon whom is not thinking twice to get their hands dirty in field.
This is still an on going research. Herewith sharing some field pictures taken. The study/ monitoring sites are located in state of Kelantan, Malaysia. Locations included: Primary forest, recently logged forest ( picture 1) ,
Oil palm plantation ( matured and recently planted sites) and within matured rubber plantation.
It is tough field work which requires high determination and stamina and perseverance. Working under hot sun and in rugged environment. I am lucky to have a good set of field team who was/ still is very cooperative, helpful.. and we end up having fun in the field too..
had some ‘visitors’ in the field too.. observing our monitoring and measurement action ( a huge spider- which I do not know the name of he species nor if it is poisonous: but she managed to pump in some excitement and fun during the site visit/ measuring). If anyone knows the species or if its harmful pls do drop a comment below.
Thanks to the supporting team: En Wan and En Jamal. It was a very successful field visit, and thank to almighty God for ensuring we were safe throughout the journey/ adventure. We had lucrative harvest of data.. to work with.