Predicting Soil Erosion with Estimation of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity from Soil Porosity: A Strategy for Meeting the SDG Goal Two and Six

For years now, the continual degradation of soils in the tropics, and around the globe has continued to be one of the challenges facing humankind. Soil erosion is one of the factors gearing low food production, environmental pollution and degradation, acting like an hindrance towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) two (zero hunger) including SDG six (clean water and sanitation). The importance of saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) of a soil to Agriculturist, Environmentalist including Engineers cannot be exhausted, as this single hydro-physical soil property controls many processes in the soil system. An experiment was conducted to access the vulnerability of University of Abuja soils to erosion. Result of data analysis proves that the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soils is slow to extremely slow with value recorded at (0.89 – 4.50 mm hr-1). Field data outcome presents a view that the soils of the area is mostly very compact to compact, with porosity value ranging from (1 – 21%). Saturated hydraulic conductivity estimation was done using hydro-physical models. The performance of the models were evaluated using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) statistics. Outcome of the model comparation proves the two model as been able to effectively estimate the water flux of the area, presenting RMSE values at (5.67 and 2.41 respectively for the two models). The study thus concluded that for loss of arable land to be minimized or avoided and for environmental sustainability, ecological tool like planting of grasses including trees can be employed to salvage the impending case of soil erosion in the area.