Soil erosion is of major concern in Abia State, Nigeria. This study adopts a combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing as a tool to study and map soil erosion menace in Abia State. For this research, several datasets that represent climate, soil, geology, topographic and anthropogenic factors were used as the basic requirements for environmental modeling of soil loss using Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) for 1986 and 2003. The results show that 1082.58 tons/acres were lost in 1986 and 1120.59 tons/acres in 2003 in the study area. Also, a negative correlation was found to exist between soil loss and NDVI (Normalized difference vegetation index) value. Soil erosion vulnerability index map as well as risk prone areas maps was produced. This study shows the integration of GIS with remote sensing as an efficient and effective tool in the study and mapping of soil erosions.

 

Key words: Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Soil erosion, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), mapping, Abia State.