sustainability Article Soil Erosion and Sediment Load Management Strategies for Sustainable Irrigation in Arid Regions Muhammad Tousif Bhatti 1,* , Muhammad Ashraf 2,* and Arif A. Anwar 1 1 International Water Management Institute, Lahore 53700, Pakistan;
[email protected] 2 Department of Agricultural Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering & Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Pakistan * Correspondence:
[email protected] (M.T.B.);
[email protected] (M.A.) Abstract: Soil erosion is a serious environmental issue in the Gomal River catchment shared by Pakistan and Afghanistan. The river segment between the Gomal Zam dam and a diversion barrage (~40 km) brings a huge load of sediments that negatively affects the downstream irrigation system, but the sediment sources have not been explored in detail in this sub-catchment. The analysis of flow and sediment data shows that the significant sediment yield is still contributing to the diversion barrage despite the Gomal Zam dam construction. However, the sediment share at the diversion barrage from the sub-catchment is much larger than its relative size. A spatial assessment of erosion rates in the sub-catchment with the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) shows that most of −1 −1 the sub-catchment falls into very severe and catastrophic erosion rate categories (>100 t h y ). The sediment entry into the irrigation system can be managed both by limiting erosion in the catchment Citation: Bhatti, M.T.; Ashraf, M.; and trapping sediments into a hydraulic structure. The authors tested a scenario by improving Anwar, A.A. Soil Erosion and the crop management factor in RUSLE as a catchment management option.