Abstract The main objective of this field investigation was to study the influence of different plant species and the use of geotextiles on soil erosion reduction in sand mining pit recoveries. A field experiment with 24 plots was installed in a freshly excavated pit, arranged in 3 blocks with 8 treatment combinations. Four different types of plantings ('type of vegetation') and two types of soil covering ('bare or with geotextile' - jute) were used. The plant species selected for the experiment were the legume Arachis repens, a mix of four locally occurring species (including two grasses) and the grass Chrysopogon zizanioides, all introduced as plantlets. Additionally, as a control, a group of plots was left initially bare. The experiment was monitored for 07 months (Nov/20 to Jun/21) with the following measurements or observations taken in each plot: (a) the mass of eroded soil, (b) the collected runoff water volume, (c) plant survival over time. Arachis repens showed the best control of soil erosion and the highest survival rate, followed by a mix of local plants. The plants only had effect on soil erosion when ‘vegetation cover’ was higher than 25%; below this, all treatments showed the same erosion behavior, including the control plots with no initial plants. Somehow surprisingly, use of geotextile did not reduce soil erosion.
Stein et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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