Abstract The present study evaluates the efficiency of a system of plantation in mitigating erosion. It was initiated in 2019 in Tifilès watershed (province of Chlef, north-western Algeria). Two investigation sites in a steep semi-arid area were used: the first plot was planted with an agroforestry system, while the second was kept bare ground. A reference area was selected in both sites for comparison purposes. 7Be activity in the planted reference site was estimated to be 434 ± 22.67 Bq m−2, whereas it was 497 ± 25.61 Bq m−2 in the unplanted reference site. The relaxation mass depth was found equal to 8.33 kg m−2 in the planted site and 5.55 kg m−2 in the unplanted one. The results show that the planted site is characterized by a lower amount of soil loss than the bare ground plot. This reflects the positive effect of the agroforestry system in controlling erosion in steep areas.
Kessaissia et al. (2025) studied this question.