SWCE

MSU-General Santos
Agricultural Engineering Review

2019
Soil & Water Conservation
Engineering
Prepared By: ER Lapong
Soil Texture
– relative proportion of sand, silt and clay
Sandy soil – coarse-textured soil
Loam soil – medium-textured (all the major size

fractions occur in sizeable proportions
Clay soil/silty clay – fine-textured, contain more
than 40% clay particles and 45% sand or silt
Silty-clay-loam – similar to silty-clay except that it

contains a substantial quantity of sand
Soil Structure
 Arrangement of individual soil particles with respect to
each other in a pattern
a. Simple structure
 Single-grain structure – occurs normally in sand
and silt
 Massive structure
b. Compound structure – according to the relative

lengths of their vertical and horizontal axes
and by the contour of their edges
Cube-like – vertical and horizontal areas are almost
equal in length
Columnar – vertical axes is longer than the horizontal
Platy – horizontal axes is longer than the vertical
Angular – corners and edges are sharp
Sub-angular – sharp edges by rounded corners
Granular – both corners and edges are rounded

Kinds of Soil Water
Hygroscopic water – water held tightly to the surface
of soil particles by adsorption forces
Capillary water – water held by forces of surface tension

and continuous film around soil particle and
capillary spaces
Gravitational water – water that moves freely in

response to gravity and drains out of the soil
Soil Moisture constants:
1. Saturation Capacity – all pores of the soil are filled
with water
- Maximum water-holding capacity
2. Field Capacity (FC) – is the moisture content after

drainage of gravitational water has become very slow
and the moisture content has become relatively stable
3. Permanent Wilting Point/Percentage (PWP) –

moisture content at which plants can no longer obtain
enough moisture to meet transpiration requirement
and remain wilted (and eventually dies) unless water is
added
4. Moisture equivalent – amount of water retained by
a sample of initially saturated soil material
5. Wilting Range – range in soil moisture content which

plants undergo progressive degree of permanent
or irreversible wilting
6. Available Water
– soil moisture between
field capacity and
permanent wilting
point
Formulae:
TAM  FC  PWP
R  RAM  TAM
Pw  FC  R
( FC  Pw )
dRAM   As  D RZ
100
RAM
No.  of  Days 
ET
Where: TAM – Total Available Moisture
FC – Field Capacity
PWP – Permanent Wilting Point/Percentage
R – Range
Pw – soil moisture content
dRAM – depth of Readily Available Moisture
AS – Apparent specific gravity
DRZ – depth of root zone
No. of Days – irrigation frequency (no. of days
before irrigation)
ET – evapotranspiration rate
Watershed and Catchment – are essentially the
same, but Basin (often river basin) is most often
used to describe a region drained by a larger
river system, implying a very large watershed or
catchment.
Watershed
is the total land area that contributes to
the flow of a particular water body and
drains to a common outlet.
Watershed – is the divide between two areas

drained by different river systems.
Watershed may be:
 with or without inhabitants
 with or without trees and other vegetations
 with or without wildlife
 sloping or relatively flat
 with a continuous or intermittent

river creek.
Classification according to areal extent
River basin Over 1000 km2
Large Watershed 500-1000 km2
Medium Watershed 100-500 km2
Small Watershed 10-100 km2
Micro Watershed Under 10 km2

Soil Erosion –
is the detachment and transport of soil particles by
natural (i.e. water and wind) or anthropogenic
(man-induced or man-related) causes.
Eroding agents – rainfall/raindrop, runoff, wind
Rainfall Erosivity – the capacity of rainfall to cause

erosion
Soil Erodibility – the susceptibility of the soil to be
eroded
Environmental Impacts of Soil Erosion
A. On-site Impacts
 Reduce crop productivity due to loss of topsoil

 Reduced infiltration rate, percolation, and
subsurface/aquifer recharge
 Increased direct runoff
A. On-site Impacts
Decreased land value

 Increased local temperature
 Damaged biodiversity (flora and fauna)
B. Off-site Impacts
 Siltation in farms, rivers, dams, canals, and

other water channels and water control and
detention structures
 Reduced water capacity of rivers, water
channels, and dams and other water
reservoirs
B. Off-site Impacts
 Flooding of downstream
 Decreased water supply (fresh water supply)
 Damaged biodiversity
Forms and Classification of Erosion
A. Based on nature of occurrence
 Natural or geologic erosion

 Man-made or accelerated erosion
B. Based on relative place of occurrence
 Surface erosion
 Subsurface erosion
C. Based on eroding agent
 Water erosion (rainfall erosion,

runoff erosion)
 Wind erosion
D. Based on sequential occurrence
 Sheet, Interill, Gully and Streambank
Sheet erosion – is the

uniform removal of soil in thin
layers from sloping land,
resulting from sheet or
overland flow
Interill erosion – is splash and sheet erosion
combined
Rill erosion - is the detachment of soil by a
concentrated flow of water
Gully erosion - produces channels larger than rills,
called gullies, and which cannot be obliterated by normal
tillage
Mechanics of soil erosion
 Rainfall erosion (or raindrop/splash)

 Runoff or scour erosion
 Gully erosion
Geotextile
Methods of Soil Erosion Measurement:
Soil erosion plots

(standard conditions:
bare fallow, 9% slope,
72.6 ft. length)
B. Rainfall simulator
Use of Empirical Equations and
Prediction Models
 USLE
 RUSLE
 MUSLE
 WEPP Model
Soil and Water Conservation Measures
a. Vegetative and natural control

measures
b. Engineering-type control measures

EROSION CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES AND
PRACTICES
A. Natural and Vegetative Technologies

 Contouring
 Stripcropping
 Mulching
 Alley cropping
 Hedgerows and grass boundary
 Crop rotation
 Zero tillage or Dibble Planting
 Combination of two or more technologies
mentioned above
A. Vegetative and natural control measures
1. Crop Rotation
Use good crop rotation practices. Whenever possible, alternate grain crops with legumes.
2. Relay Cropping
 Practice relay planting of the second seasonal crop. Sowing the 2 nd crop while
the 1st is till growing helps reduce demands of soil cultivation.
 Relay plating also serves as an effective soil cover following the 1 st harvest.
3. Planting along countours
Always plant along contours. This prevents erosion by water flow

and improves infiltration and water retention in soil.
4. Use of Organic Matter
Mix all available organic matter (crop residues, animal manure,

etc.) into the soil. This helps improves soil structure, soil fertility,
and moisture-holding capacity.
Do not burn crop residues.
5. Laying Crop residues on the field or along
contour (mulching)
Lay additional crop residues, twigs and other materials in contour lines or spread/mulch
across the slope, to further prevent excessive water flow.
Stubble mulching – leaving crops residues in the field and later
incorporating them into the soil
6. Cover cropping
Coconut-based
Citrus-based
7. Farm Diversification
Diversity farm enterprises include more trees and larger crops. Food crops can be
planted in between or alternately with fruit and tree crops.
9. Planting of trees or establishment of
mini-forest at the upper end of slope
Maintain forested areas at the upper end of sloping farmlands

serves as protective conservation function and source of fuel
wood, food, income and other useful products.
10. Agroforestry
– combines growing trees/fuit

species with agricultural or
horticultural crops
11. Protection of land by cover crops during
fallow period
Using effective mulches and cover crops to protect the soil from intense
sunlight, wind erosion, and heavy rainfall
B. Engineering type control measures
1. Terracing
Bench Terrace
Types of Terrace:
•Bench terrace
•Forward-sloped terrace
•Reverse-sloped terrace
•Irrigation/basin terrace
•“Eyebrow” or Orchard terrace
2. Grassed waterways
3. Weirs and
Check dams
4. Impounding ponds or dams
SFR – Small Farm reservoir
SWIP – Small Water impounding Project

5. Gabions
6. Riprap
7. Wattling
- Consists of interwoven fences of brushwood or twigs in shallow

trenches/canals and supported by pegs.
8. Geotextile
Runoff Storage or Detention Structure
– impounding structures and reservoirs that

reduce velocity and modulate volume of
water
(reservoir dams, detention dams, SWIPs, SFRs, etc.)

SWIP
SFR
Protected Waterways
(for gullies, streams/rivers, and other water channels)
1. Use of grassed waterways (increases roughness

coefficient)
2. Channel lining (concrete, bricks, stones/riprap, slabs, logs)

Diversion Channels
- construction of cut-offs and detour channels
Drop structures
 weir
 chute
 drop spillway
 drop inlet
Use of Empirical Equations and
Prediction Models
 USLE
 RUSLE
 MUSLE
 WEPP Model
Rainfall Kinetic Energy Formulae:
E = 0.119 + 0.0873(log I) MJ/ha-mm

where: I = mm/hr
E = 210.3 + 89(log I) MT/ha-cm

where: I = cm/hr
E = 916 + 331(log I) ft-tons/acre-in

where: I = in/hr
(E – rainfall kinetic energy, I – rainfall intensity)

Wattle
- Consists of interwoven fences of brushwood or twigs in shallow
trenches/canals and supported by pegs.
Gabions
Classification of Transported Sediment Material:
Suspended Load
Bed Load
– sediment or soil
– sediment near or few
particle suspended
inches from the stream
in the water body
bed and move by crawling
-sediment that is
or sliding
-in motion in a river
In terms of soil particle size, the sediment Saltation – sediment

material is classified as: transported by “saltation”
or “jumping”
 Wash load – suspended and saltation
 Bed load
Depth- Integrating Sampler
– are lowered and raised through the entire water column and accumulate
a sample which integrates all point, thus giving a sample which reflects the
entire content of the water column, but dos not indicate the distribution of
the contents within the column.
Reservoir Sedimentation
Trap Efficiency – the percentage of incoming sediment
retained in the reservoir
n
 1 
y  100 1  
 1  ax 
Where: x = C/I (C- reservoir capacity, I – inflow)
a and n = constants ( typical values: 100 and 1.5,
respectively)
Yearly Fillage (m3/yr) = Trap Efficiency ×
total amount of sediment
production (m3/yr)
Time of Fillage (yrs) = capacity (m3)/yearly

fillage (m3/yr)
Surcharge
Useful storage
Dead
storage
Parts of a dam reservoir

End

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MSU-General Santos

Agricultural Engineering Review

Loam soil – medium-textured (all the major size

Silty-clay-loam – similar to silty-clay except that it

b. Compound structure – according to the relative

Columnar – vertical axes is longer than the horizontal

Platy – horizontal axes is longer than the vertical

Angular – corners and edges are sharp

Sub-angular – sharp edges by rounded corners

Granular – both corners and edges are rounded

Capillary water – water held by forces of surface tension

Gravitational water – water that moves freely in

2. Field Capacity (FC) – is the moisture content after

3. Permanent Wilting Point/Percentage (PWP) –

5. Wilting Range – range in soil moisture content which

Watershed – is the divide between two areas

 with or without inhabitants

 with or without trees and other vegetations

 with or without wildlife

 sloping or relatively flat

 with a continuous or intermittent

River basin Over 1000 km2

Large Watershed 500-1000 km2

Medium Watershed 100-500 km2

Small Watershed 10-100 km2

Micro Watershed Under 10 km2

Eroding agents – rainfall/raindrop, runoff, wind

Rainfall Erosivity – the capacity of rainfall to cause

 Reduce crop productivity due to loss of topsoil

Decreased land value

 Siltation in farms, rivers, dams, canals, and

A. Based on nature of occurrence

 Natural or geologic erosion

 Water erosion (rainfall erosion,

Sheet erosion – is the

 Rainfall erosion (or raindrop/splash)

Soil erosion plots

a. Vegetative and natural control

b. Engineering-type control measures

A. Natural and Vegetative Technologies

Always plant along contours. This prevents erosion by water flow

Mix all available organic matter (crop residues, animal manure,

Maintain forested areas at the upper end of sloping farmlands

– combines growing trees/fuit

SFR – Small Farm reservoir

SWIP – Small Water impounding Project

- Consists of interwoven fences of brushwood or twigs in shallow

– impounding structures and reservoirs that

(reservoir dams, detention dams, SWIPs, SFRs, etc.)

1. Use of grassed waterways (increases roughness

2. Channel lining (concrete, bricks, stones/riprap, slabs, logs)

E = 0.119 + 0.0873(log I) MJ/ha-mm

E = 210.3 + 89(log I) MT/ha-cm

E = 916 + 331(log I) ft-tons/acre-in

(E – rainfall kinetic energy, I – rainfall intensity)

In terms of soil particle size, the sediment Saltation – sediment

Time of Fillage (yrs) = capacity (m3)/yearly

Parts of a dam reservoir

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