Landscape Ecology 18: 1–15, 2003.

1
© 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

The effect of short-term socio-economic and demographic change on

landuse dynamics and its corresponding geomorphic response with
relation to water erosion in a tropical mountainous catchment, Ecuador

Veerle Vanacker 1,2,*, Gerard Govers 2, Sandra Barros 3, Jean Poesen 2 and Jozef Deckers 4
1
Fund for Scientific Research–Flanders (F.W.O.), Belgium; 2Laboratory for Experimental Geomorphology,
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; 3Empresa Publica Municipal de Telecomunicaciones, Agua
Potable y Alcantarillado del Canton Cuenca, Dirección de Gestión Ambiental, Cuenca, Ecuador; 4Institute for
Land and Water Management, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; *Author for correspondence
(e-mail: veerle.vanacker@geo.kuleuven.ac.be)
Received 18 October 2001; accepted in revised form 4 February 2002

Key words: Aerial image analysis, Andes, Cuenca, Geomorphic response, Land use change, Suspended sediment
concentration, Water erosion

Abstract

The analysis of aerial photographs over a 33-year period (1962–1995) shows that land use in the study catch-
ment is highly dynamic as a response to the land reform programs of the 1960s and 1970s and a strong popu-
lation increase. The secondary forest is increasingly replaced by grassland while old grasslands are now used as
cultivated land. Despite the increased pressure on the land, the upward movement of agricultural activity and the
concurrent deforestation, the overall forest cover did not decline. The deforestation in the uplands is compen-
sated for by a regeneration of secondary forest on abandoned rangelands and afforestation with Eucalyptus trees
in the low-lying areas. The land use changes resulted in a strong decrease of the areas subject to intense soil
degradation: afforestation with Eucalyptus trees on degraded lands was successful in controlling soil erosion in
the lower parts of the catchment. The relationship between land use and sediment load in the river system is not
straightforward. Statistical analysis of a time series of suspended sediment concentrations, which were measured
at the outlet of three distinctive sub-catchments for a six-year period (1994 – 2000), revealed that the geomor-
phic response of the river system is not only dependent on the land use and the area affected by water erosion,
but also on the spatial connectivity between sediment producing areas and the river network.

Introduction dent on the landowner of the haciendas, disappeared

In the Ecuadorian Andes, land use/cover is changing
at an ever increasing rate (Gondard 1988; De Noni
and Viennot 1993; De Koning et al. 1998). This
change is largely driven by the radical socio-eco-
nomic and demographic changes of the last few de-
cades.
Until the 1950s, arable lands were concentrated in
the more densely populated inter-Andean basins:
crops were produced on the fertile soils while exten-
sive cattle raising extended to the steeper slopes. This
feudalistic agrarian structure, whereby the peasant
population (huasipunguero) was completely depen-
almost entirely from the 1960s onwards (Commander
and Peek 1986; Vos 1988). Urban industry and man-
ufacturing became increasingly important, particu-
larly since the end of the 1960s because of the accel-
erated urbanisation and industrialisation following the
discovery and exploitation of crude oil in the Ama-
zon in 1967. The current agro-pastoral production
system was an obstacle to economic growth since it
was unable to produce sufficient wage goods for a
booming urban population, which grew from 0.9 mil-
lion (28% of the total population) in 1950 to 8 mil-
lion (65% of the total population) in 1999 (Dirección
2
General de Estadísticas y Censos 1960; World Bank
2000).
The Land Reform Programs of the 1960s and
1970s were designed to commercialise the rural econ-
omy by reorganising the feudalistic system into a
more productive communal or collective agrarian
structure (Hess 1990). The actual consequences of the
agrarian reforms were not only a more capital-inten-
sive production on the large- and middle-sized farms
in the sub-sectors of agro-industry and cattle-breed-
ing, but also a spatial redistribution of the small land-
owners (minifundistas) towards the steep hillsides
and the highlands (Commander and Peek 1986; Vos
1988). In addition, the high population pressure on
the countryside, caused by a booming population
which increased from 3.2 to 12.4 million in hardly
fifty years, forced a further subdivision of the mini-
fundios in increasingly smaller farm units and an in-
creasing migration towards the urban areas (Direc-
ción General de Estadísticas y Censos 1960; World
Bank 2000).
The radical socio-economic and demographic
changes induced an accelerated land use/cover
change in the Andes Mountains, which can be sum-
marised as (i) an expansion of the urban areas, (ii) an
intensification of the agricultural land use, (iii) a frag-
mentation of the agricultural lands and (iv) a strong
upward movement of the agricultural frontier into the
primary and secondary native forests and bushlands
(Hess 1990; Wunder 1996). It is generally assumed
that these land use/cover changes have caused accel-
erated soil erosion and increased sediment yields in
the rivers (White and Maldonado 1991; De Noni and
Viennot 1993; Morris 1997). This assessment is
mostly based on the results of research projects fo-
cused on a large-scale approach involving measure-
ments of net erosion rates on small experimental sites:
De Noni et al. (1989) measured net soil losses on
Wishmeier plots and experimental plots endowed
with traditional methods of soil conservation and
Harden (1993, 1996) measured soil detachment rates
by means of a portable rainfall simulator for different
land use classes. Both authors indicate that the
amount of soil loss on the experimental plots is highly
dependent on the rainfall erosivity, the soil erodibility
and the presence/absence of a protective soil cover.
There are at least three reasons why a direct ex-
trapolation of such detailed plot studies to larger ar-
eas should be treated with caution. First, the geomor-
phic response of large areas is strongly determined by
the spatial pattern of land use dynamics: however,
very little quantitative information about the spatial
dynamics in land use/cover exists on a regional scale.
Second, recent research has shown that the impact of
land use/cover change on river sediment load is often
far from direct (e.g. Walling (1999) and Trimble
(1999), Evans et al. (2000)). Third, when changing
the spatial scale under study, the dominant erosion
process may also change (Poesen et al. 1996). The
current study focuses on the geomorphic impact of
short-time environmental change in medium-sized
catchment areas (i.e. approx. 100 – 500 km 2): the
dominant water erosion processes on this aggregation
level are sheet- and rill erosion and gully erosion.
Thus, even when important land use changes are tak-
ing place, it is far from certain that a response can be
detected in the river system.
This study in the Andes Mountains in Ecuador
deals with the impact of short-term environmental
changes, such as land use/cover changes on water
erosion patterns and rates on a regional scale. More
specifically, this study aims to (i) identify the major
factors controlling land use change on a decadal time
scale, (ii) assess the effects of land use changes on
water erosion patterns using a spatial modelling ap-
proach and (iii) investigate to what extent differences
in land use and water erosion patterns affect the sedi-
ment load in rivers.
Materials and methods
The Paute drainage basin
The Paute drainage basin is situated in the southern
part of the Ecuadorian Andes, between longitudes
79°36⬘ – 78°47⬘ W and latitudes 3°27⬘ – 2°29⬘ S, and
is drained by the Paute River which transfers runoff
via the Namangoza, Santiago and Maranon Rivers to
the Amazon basin (Figure 1). Since 1983, the Paute
River has been dammed in Amaluza at an altitude of
1991 m a.s.l. as part of a hydro-electric project, that
generates approximately 58% of Ecuador’s electricity
(INECEL (Instituto Ecuatoriano de Electrificación).
1982). The portion of the watershed upstream of the
hydro-electric project in Amaluza covers approxi-
mately 5176 km 2. It is characterised by strong altitu-
dinal gradients – varying between 1991 m a.s.l. and
4680 m a.s.l. – which results in a large variation in
meteorological, hydrological and ecological condi-
tions over relatively short distances (White and Mal-
donado 1991; Harden 1993; Morris 1997).

Figure 1. Regional setting of the Machangara catchment (330
km 2) within the Paute River drainage basin (5176 km 2). The loca-
tion of the meteorological stations of Ricaurte (1) and Labrado (2)
is indicated on the map.
White and Maldonado (1991) pointed out that
most of the Southern Ecuatorian Andes has adequate
precipitation and temperature to support tree growth:
it is likely that the catchment was forested before first
settling took place (i.e., ‘Formativo’ period, which is
between 6000 – 2500 BP), with the only exception
being the high-elevation grasslands (páramo), where
unfavourable climatic conditions would have ham-
pered tree growth. Due to a long pre-colonial cultiva-
tion history, with successive periods of land clearing
and abandonment, over half of the primary native for-
est has been converted to agricultural land use (crop-
land and pasture) or has been replaced by secondary
forest or, more recently, by exotic species, such as
Eucalyptus. Clearings and settlements have affected
particularly the central part of the catchment, that is
centred around the historic town of Cuenca (Fig-
ure 1). The lower part has been largely left untouched
and forested, but disturbance has been increasing over
the last two decades as construction and utility roads
around the hydroelectric project have encouraged mi-
gration (Morris 1997). Based on detailed sediment
budgets of the hydro-electric reservoir over a time
period of 15 years, the average annual sediment ex-
port is calculated to be ca. 6.5 ton ha −1 yr −1 (Jerves
1999). Systematic changes in sediment export over
time could not be detected as annual and inter-annual
fluctuations in the sediment export are high. It is clear
that these severe erosion problems do not only affect
the agricultural production, but they may also seri-
ously shorten the life span of the Paute hydro-electric
3
project and hamper the future production of electric
power (Harden (1993, 1996)).
Given the extent of the Paute catchment (5176
km 2), it is impossible to make an inventory of the
geomorphic response to land use changes based on
aerial photographs for the catchment as a whole.
Therefore, a medium-sized tributary catchment, the
catchment of the Machangara River, was selected
within the Paute River drainage basin (Figure 1). It
has a drainage area of approximately 330 km 2 and is
characterised by a strong elevational gradient: the al-
titude rises from 2440 m asl at the catchment outlet
to 4420 m asl at the water divide. As it covers the
prevailing ecosystems of the upper and middle parts
of the Paute catchment, it can be considered as repre-
sentative of this region. Climatic parameters are
closely related with elevation data: the mean annual
air temperature (1970 – 2000) varies between 14.1 °C
at the station of Ricaurte (2714 m a.s.l.) and 8 °C at
the station of Labrado (3260 m a.s.l.); the mean an-
nual precipitation (1970 – 2000) increases from 857
mm at the station of Ricaurte to 1309mm at the sta-
tion of Labrado (Empresa Municipal de Telecomuni-
caciones, Agua Potable y Alcantarillado (ETAPA)
2000). The discharge of the Machangara River is ar-
tificially regulated through a network of ditches and
retention ponds: the network is fitted for a minimum
water supply of 3.26 m 3 s −1 for a period of 7 succes-
sive days, the mean annual discharge (1970 – 2000)
at the outlet of the catchment is ca 6.82 m 3 s −1 (Em-
presa Municipal de Telecomunicaciones, Agua Pota-
ble y Alcantarillado (ETAPA) 2000).
An inventory of landuse change and spatial
dynamics in the occurrence of water erosion
Land use change and the spatial dynamics of the oc-
currence of water erosion processes were monitored
using a set of archived aerial photographs, which
were taken at dates more or less regularly spread in
time from the 1960s onwards. Table 1 summarises
some important characteristics of the selected air-
photo series and gives a rating of the image quality.
The photo-interpretation was done manually using
a WILD mirror stereoscope and transparent overlays.
The minimal mapping unit (MMU) was fixed at 150
by 150 m, according to the maximum degree of de-
tail that is visible on the smallest-scale photographs
of 1976. The corresponding minimal extent of the
mapping polygons for each time series can be found
in Table 1. A field survey was carried out in July 2000
4

Table 1. Major characteristics of the selected series of aerial photographs (1962, 1976, 1989 and 1995). The airphoto series of 1976 is not
complete as stereo-photos of the high altitudes are lacking. This series is not used in the quantitative spatial analysis of landuse and geo-
morphic activity, but in the calculation of demographic growth (see Figure 5). The image quality varies from 1 (good) to 3 (bad). The rating
depends on the contrast in image tone and texture, and the presence of clouds or fog.

1962 1976 1989 1995

Flight date (dd/mm/yy) 12/11/’62 30/06/’76 25/08/’89 16/02/’95

Approximate scale 1:45 000 1:60 000 1:55 000 1:30 000
Focal length 151.41 mm 152.68 mm 153.03 mm 153.03 mm
Image Quality 2 2 3 1
Minimal Mapping Unit (150 m *150 m) (0.33 * 0.33) cm (0.25 * 0.25) cm (0.27 * 0.27) cm (0.5 * 0.5) cm

Figure 2. Hierarchical classification scheme for water erosion processes in the Machangara catchment. (VC (%) = vegetation cover of the
topsoil, Gd (m/100 ha) = gully density)

in order to draw up a feasible classification scheme
of landuse and geomorphic activity. Landuse was
classified into the following nine categories: at the
high altitudes (> 3400 m a.s.l): (1) high alpine tundra
vegetation (páramo), (2) primary native forest (Polyl-
epis forest) and (3) lakes; at the mid-altitudes (be-
tween 2800 m and 3400 m a.s.l.): (4) secondary na-
tive forest and (5) rangelands; and in the lowlands (<
2800 m a.s.l.): (6) rural settlements mixed with (7)
small agricultural parcels, (8) Eucalyptus forest and
(9) wastelands with a very poor vegetation cover.
Geomorphic activity in relation to water erosion was
assessed by delineating areas with similar water ero-
sion processes. Three kinds of water erosion pro-
cesses were recognised: (i) sheet- and rill erosion, (ii)
active gully erosion and (iii) stabilised gully systems
(Figure 2). Eroding areas were classified as affected
by sheet- and rill erosion when no erosion scars were
visible on the airphotos: if scars were visible, the ar-
eas were classified as affected by gully erosion. For
each classification, two intensity levels were distin-
guished (Figure 2).
Subsequently, this information was transferred into
a digital form, whereby the aerial photographs and
transparent overlays were ortho-rectified and georef-
erenced in ILWIS (International Institute for Aero-
space Survey & Earth Sciences 1999; Vanacker et al.
2000).
Sediment concentration data
Some data on suspended sediment transport are avail-
able for the Machangara catchment (Empresa Munic-
ipal de Telecomunicaciones, Agua Potable y Alcanta-
rillado (ETAPA) 2000). They consist of a time series
of suspended sediment concentrations (SSC), which
were measured at the outlet of three distinctive sub-
catchments for a seven-year period (1994 – 2000;

Figure 3. Location and characteristics of the three sub-catchments:
Chanlud (53 km 2), Ochoa Leon (36 km 2) and Compaña (20 km 2).
Note that the upper limit of the Ochoa Leon sub-catchment is ar-
tificially determined by a canal, which was constructed to transport
water primarily used in a hydro-electric plant upslope for re-use in
a water purification plant and for irrigation.
Figure 3), The Chanlud subcatchment is representa-
tive for the high-altitude areas (> 3400 m) in the
Machangara catchment, which are until present en-
tirely occupied by páramo, Polylepis forest and lakes.
The Ochoa Leon and Compaña subcatchments are lo-
cated in the lower part of the Machangara catchment
and have a mixed land use (secondary woodland, pas-
tures, arable land and housing). Suspended sediment
was not continuously monitored but a single sample
was taken every month.
The natural drainage system in the area is modi-
fied by ditches which were constructed to transport
water to a hydro-electric plant. Therefore, drainage
areas were determined by combining the digital ele-
vation data with information about the location of the
ditches, which was obtained by means of a hand-held
global positioning system (GPS) in the field.
Results
Landuse dynamics
The analysis of aerial photographs over a 33-year pe-
riod (1962–1995) showed that land use in the catch-
ment was dynamic (Figure 4, Tables 3 and 4). The
area of high alpine tundra vegatation and the range-
lands decreased with resp. 580 ha and 620 ha,
5
whereas the area covered by secondary forest in-
creased with 350 ha. Interesting changes took place
in the lower parts of the catchment: the areal extent
of Eucalyptus forest increased by 6.5 times, which is
a clear indication of a general introduction of Euca-
lyptus trees, and the rural centra expanded by 134 ha.
The land use pattern of 1962 reflects the feudalis-
tic agrarian structure of that time. The lack of parcel-
lization of the agricultural lands is a clear evidence
of the large-scale land ownership. A few large-sized
farms (haciendas) dominated the region completely.
These haciendas were located in the lower parts of the
catchment and concentrated most of the peasant pop-
ulation, who were dependent on the landowner. Con-
sequently, rural centres were limited to small popula-
tion concentrations in parishes. Both crop production
and cattle raising were the most important economic
earnings for the landowners. Figure 4 shows that only
the lower, fertile parts of the catchment were used as
arable lands, where crops were produced on large par-
cels. The gently sloping areas of the middle parts of
the catchment and the poorly drained soils along the
valley bottoms were often used for cattle grazing.
Landuse changed profoundly between 1962 and
1995. This change was mainly driven by the land re-
form programs in the 1960s and 1970s and rapid de-
mographic growth. The land reforms brought about a
division of the agricultural lands into small units
aligned by vegetative boundaries and an intensifica-
tion of the agricultural land use now dominated by
crop production rather than extensive livestock hold-
ing. The former can be observed from Figure 7; the
latter from Table 3 as the area of rangelands de-
creased by approx. 27%. There are no census data
available which would allow to estimate accurately
population growth in the Machangara catchment.
INEC (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo)
(1990) reports an overall yearly population increase
of 2.34 % for the period 1982 – 1990. The population
growth rate was even larger for rural areas like the
Machangara catchment (3.13 %). The overall increase
in population density resulted in (i) a rapid expansion
of the built-up rural centres at a mean rate of ca 5
ha yr −1 (Figure 5), (ii) afforestation with Eucalyptus
trees, used for firewood and/or timber, which resulted
in 6.5 fold increase of the areal extent of the Euca-
lyptus forest (Table 3) and (iii) an accelerated defor-
estation in search of new arable lands, by which the
secondary native forest was reduced by 2004 ha (41
% of total forested area in 1962) over a period of 33
years.
6

Table 2. Major characteristics of the Chanlud (53 km 2), Ochoa Leon (36 km 2) and Compaña (20 km 2) sub-catchment with relation to land
use (%) and the area affected by water erosion (% of the total area) in 1995. The median suspended sediment load (g/l) at the outlet of each
sub-catchment is also given.

SUB-CATCHMENTS
Chanlud Compaña Ochoa Leon

Median suspended sediment load (g/l) 0.075 0.179 0.092

Area affected by water erosion (% of the total area) 0.00 1.90 1.60

Land use (%)

– Eucalyptus forest 0.0 12.0 13.5
– Polylepis forest 1.7 0.0 0.0
– Secondary native vegetation 0.0 24.8 20.9
– Arable lands 0.0 45.8 55.3
– Wastelands 0.1 1.3 0.5
– High alpine vegetation 97.3 8.5 3.8
– Rangelands 0.0 6.1 5.7
– Urbanisation 0.0 1.5 0.2

Figure 4. Land use maps of 1962 (map a) and 1995 (map b) of the Machangara catchment. Map c shows the changes in land use (1962 –
1995) for a small area located in the lower part of the Machangara catchment. The location of this area is indicated on map a and b by a
black frame.

Figure 4 shows the spatial pattern of landuse
change, which can be roughly summarised as a strong
upward movement of the prevailing ecosystems due
to an increasing population pressure in the low-lying
agricultural lands: 20% of the former agricultural
lands are replaced by urban areas and commercial
forest plantations, 32% of the rangelands by agricul-
tural lands and commercial forest plantations, 15% of
the secondary forest by rangelands and agricultural
lands and ca. 620 ha of high alpine vegetation by a
re-growth of secondary forest (Table 4). This results
in a net decrease of the high alpine tundra vegetation
by 2.7% (Table 3).
The landuse change manifests itself strongly along
the agricultural frontier, where the secondary native
forest is increasingly removed and replaced by range-
lands. This leads to an accelerated fragmentation of
the secondary forests. However, Tables 3 and 4 show
 7

Table 3. Rates of landuse change between 1962 and 1995. (Note that the surface area of lakes and reservoirs has increased by 61ha due to
the construction of new reservoirs).

Landuse Area 1962 Area 1989 Area 1995 Net land use change (’62–’95)

ha % ha % ha % ha %

High alpine vegetation 21321 65.6 20877 64.2 20741 63.8 −580 −2.7
Polylepsis forest 792 2.4 851 2.6 808 2.5 +16 +2.0
Lakes and reservoirs 150 0.5 220 0.7 211 0.7 +61 +40.7
Secondary native vegetation 4134 12.7 4186 12.9 4484 13.8 +350 +8.5
Rangelands 2323 7.2 1639 5.0 1703 5.2 −620 −26.7
Arable lands 3550 10.9 3759 11.6 3458 10.6 −92 −2.6
Wastelands 110 0.3 32 0.1 92 0.3 −18 −16.4
Eucalyptus forest 114 0.4 836 2.6 863 2.7 +749 +657.0
Rural centres 1 0.0 95 0.3 135 0.4 +134 +13400

TOTAL 32495 100 32495 100 32495 100 0 0

Figure 5. Evolution of the population density, assessed by measurements of the spatial extent of built-up rural centres on the aerial photo-
graphs of 1962, 1976, 1989 and 1995.

that the overall forest cover in the catchment does not
decrease due to an intensification of the urban and
agrarian land use. As a result of a regeneration of
secondary forest on abandoned rangelands and refor-
estation with Eucalyptus trees on degraded soils, the
areas covered by Polylepsis forest, secondary native
forest and Eucalyptus forest increased by 2.0%, 8.5%
and 657% respectively over a period of 33 years.
Also, no significant net increase in arable and/or
wastelands could be observed, despite the large inter-
nal spatial dynamics.
Spatial dynamics in the occurrence of water erosion
The area affected by water erosion (i.e., area of ac-
tive gully erosion and of active sheet & rill erosion)
decreased at a mean annual rate of ca 11.3 ha from
598.3 ha in 1962 to 293.6 ha in 1995. Table 5 is a
cross tabulation of the water erosion intensity of 1962
(rows) vs. 1995 (columns), whereby the water erosion
classes are ordered in such a way that the cells above
the diagonal indicate the areas with a decrease of the
water erosion intensity and vice versa. From Table 5
it is clear that processes of both stabilisation and ini-
tiation of water erosion are found in the catchment,
but that stabilisation is the dominant process. Out of
8

Table 4. Land use transitions within the Machangara catchment for the period 1962 – 1995. The table is obtained by a cross tabulation
operation in GIS in which the landuse categories of 1962 are compared with those of 1995 and a tabulation is kept of the number of pixel
cells in each combination. The areal extent of each combination is then calculated by multiplying the number of pixels by the pixel resolution
(i.e. 30 m by 30 m)

LAND USE 1995

High alpine Polylepsis Lakes and Secondary Rangelands Arable Wastelands Eucalyptus Rural centra
vegetation forest reservoirs native lands forest
vegetation
1962 (20741 ha) (808 ha) (211 ha) (4484 ha) (1703 ha) (3458 ha) (92 ha) (863 ha) (135 ha)

High alpine 20361 163 58 621 105 / 13 / /

vegetation
(21321 ha)
Polylepis 149 642 0 / / / 1 / /
forest (792
ha)
Lakes and 6 2 141 / 1 / 0 / /
reservoirs
(150 ha)
Secondary 216 1 / 3275 539 81 11 11 /
native veg-
etation
(4134 ha)
Rangelands 8 / 12 496 1031 575 24 158 19
(2323 ha)
Arable / / / 89 25 2691 26 607 112
lands (3550
ha)
Wastelands 1 / / 2 2 64 17 24 /
(110 ha)
Eucalyptus / / / 1 0 47 0 63 3
forest (114
ha)
Rural centra / / / / / / / / 1
(1 ha)

the 598.3 ha that were affected by intense water ero-
sion in 1962, 82.6% were completely stabilised in
1995, 2.9% had a small reduction in the water ero-
sion intensity and the remaining 14.5% were left un-
changed. In the period between 1962 and 1995 there
was also an initiation or re-activation of water erosion
of approx. 42.9 ha (14.6% of the area affected by wa-
ter erosion in 1995).
Figure 6 shows the spatial dynamics in the occur-
rence of water erosion during the period between
1962 and 1995. The observed changes in water ero-
sion intensity are not homogeneous: stabilisation
seems to occur more on the low-lying areas, whereas
the initiation or re-activation of water erosion occurs
more in the central and upper parts of the catchment.
Field observations and aerial photo analysis (Figures
4 and 6) indicated that major changes in the intensity
of water erosion are related to landuse dynamics. This
hypothesis is confirmed by the results of a Pearson
correlation analysis where the changes in the inten-
sity of water erosion were cross-tabulated with the
most important land use change categories (Table 6).
The initiation or re-activation of water erosion pro-
cesses is negligible in spatial extent comparing to the
stabilisation of degraded areas (i.e., 69.5 ha vs. 546.7
ha) and is strongly correlated with recently deforested
Table 5. Cross tabulation of the water erosion intensity of 1962 vs. 1995.

WATER EROSION
(ha) i
1962 1995 (2669.7 ha)

Active gully erosion Active gully erosion Active sheet & rill Active sheet & rill Stabilised gully sys- Stabilised gully sys- No erosion features
-II -I erosion -II erosion -I tems -II tems -I observed
(3051.1 ha) (71.2 ha) (36.6 ha) (22 ha) (17 ha) (522.1 ha) (2000.8 ha)

Active gully erosion 69.8 16.4 / 0.8 12.2 38.2 127.6

-II (265 ha)
Active gully erosion / 4.4 / 0 / 24 96.1
-I (124.5 ha)
Active sheet & rill / / 2.4 / / 14.4 106.2
erosion -II (123 ha)
Active sheet & rill / / / 10.1 / / 75.7
erosion -I (85.8 ha)
Stabilised gully sys- / / / / 494.1 / 17.7
tems–II (511.8 ha)
Stabilised gully sys- 0.1 10.1 / / / 1913.4 17.4
tems -I (1941 ha)
No erosion features 1.3 5.7 19.6 6.1 15.8 10.8
observed
i
A decrease of water erosion intensity has been marked with a light grey color, an increase of water erosion intensity with a dark grey color.
9
10
Figure 6. Spatial dynamics in the occurrence and intensity of water erosion between a) 1962 and b) 1995 in the Machangara catchment. As
the areas affected by water erosion are concentrated in the lower part of the Machangara catchment, the hatched area on maps a (water
erosion in 1962) and b (water erosion in 1995) was enlarged and is shown on maps c and d respectively.
areas. From the aerial photographs, it was clear that
the initiation of water erosion was not directly hu-
man-induced, but rather a consequence of intense
slopewash on young landslide scars, which occur
mainly on recently deforested slopes in the central
part of the catchments. The stabilisation of the areas
formerly affected by water erosion in the lower parts
of the catchment was mainly due to (i) afforestation
or regeneration of secondary forest in the lower parts
of the catchment and (ii) an increase of the protective
vegetation cover on areas taken out of crop produc-
tion (Figure 7).
Discussion
From the analysis of the aerial photographs, it is clear
that – despite the accelerated land use changes of the
last few decades – the area affected by water erosion
is decreasing. Thus, the increased pressure on the land
did not lead to an increasing extent of the areas sub-
ject to intense soil degradation. There are several
case-studies, most notably in Africa, illustrating such
a situation (Turner et al. 1993; Tiffen et al. 1994;
Blench et al. 1999; Boyd and Slaymaker 2000). Most
of these studies have been directed toward the effect
of an increasing population pressure on soil and wa-
ter resources through agricultural intensification and
adoption of soil and water conservation techniques
(SWC) on the arable lands (e.g., mulching, terracing
of steep slopes). However, this case-study clearly in-
dicates that, besides the application of on-site SWC
techniques, the diversification of the agricultural land
use due to changing demands in the regional market
system can be a major factor reversing the natural re-
source degradation.
In the case of the Machangara catchment, small-
holders have decided to plant Eucalyptus trees in or-
der to meet the growing demand for timber and fuel-
wood. They have selected these areas for
afforestation, which are not suitable or economically
not profitable for agricultural production – such as
deeply intersected gullies or river valleys and bad-
lands (Figure 7). Eucalyptus plantations have induced
major changes in the water balance of the degraded
areas: evapotranspiration and infiltration have in-
creased due to the start of a protective vegetative and
dead leaf cover. This has resulted in a decrease of the
excess runoff flow, which has prevented further ex-
tension of the gully system.
The spatial decrease of the area affected by water
erosion does not necessarily imply that the overall
 11

Table 6. Cross tabulation of the changes in water erosion intensity vs. the landuse changes for the period 1962–1995.

hectares Active gully erosion Active sheet & rill Stabilised gully Increase of water Decrease of water
erosion systems erosion erosion
(74.2 ha) (12.5 ha) (2407.5 ha) (69.5 ha) (546.7 ha)

No landuse change 14.5 5.8 1895 2 36.5

(28235 ha)
−0.04722 a −0.03242 0.04077 −0.03504 −0.09802
0.0001 b 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001
Deforestation (1047 0.5 0.0 148.5 2.7 0.4
ha)
0.00797 / 0.02136 0.02162 −0.02336
0.2932 / 0.0049 0.0044 0.0021
Afforestation or re- 4.5 2.5 283.1 1.2 64
generation of woody
vegetation (2162 ha)
0.00290 0.01733 −0.00166 −0.0103 0.10271
0.7027 0.0224 0.8265 0.1746 0.0001
Decrease of vegeta- 15.9 3.6 5.9 0.0 20.9
tive cover (944 ha)
0.00283 −0.00695 −0.08807 / −0.00027
0.7095 0.3597 0.0001 / 0.9714
Increase of vegeta- 2.6 0.5 14.6 4.2 4.9
tive cover (107 ha)
0.21371 0.09784 −0.02506 −0.00258 0.13640
0.0001 0.0001 0.0010 0.7337 0.0001
a
Pearson correlation coefficient
b
p-value

sediment yield (i.e., the amount of sediment leaving
the catchment) is also diminishing. In various envi-
ronments, studies have been carried out showing that
the response of rivers to land use changes can be quite
complex and is often characterised by an important
time lag. Furthermore, the spatial distribution of sedi-
ment sources and sinks within the catchment is im-
portant: catchments with similar sediment production
rates can have rather different sediment yields be-
cause the amount of eroded sediment that is again
deposited within the catchment is controlled by the
spatial organisation of the land use and the connec-
tivity between sediment sources and the river network
(e.g. Walling (1999) and Steegen et al. (2000), Van
Oost et al. (2000), Van Rompaey et al. (2001)). River
processes such as bank erosion and bed incision or
aggradation may also have an important effect on the
final sediment yield of a catchment (Walling 1999).
For our catchments only limited information on
suspended sediment loads is available (Tables 2 and
7). Considering the low temporal resolution of the
measurements and the absence of concurrent dis-
charge measurements, it is not possible to reliably es-
timate sediment budgets for each sub-basin. However,
some insight can be gained by looking at the fre-
quency distributions of the observed sediment con-
centrations.
For each catchment the observations of the SSC
were sorted in ascending order and plotted against
their exceedance probability (Figure 8). A Student t-
test reveals a significant difference in suspended sedi-
ment concentration between the Compaña River
catchment on the one hand and the Ochoa Leon (p =
0.001) and Chanlud (p = 0.003) sub-catchments on
the other hand. Furthermore, the SSC distribution of
the Compaña catchments has a clearly higher stan-
dard deviation and a higher skewness, which is due
to the presence of high values (Table 7).
The lower sediment concentration for the Ochoa
Leon catchment compared to the Compaña catchment
does not correspond with what was expected from the
land use inventory: the percentage of arable land is
12

Figure 7. Aerial view of the changes in land use and water erosion activity 1962 (photo a) – 1989 (photo b) – 1995 (photo c). The location
of the area is shown on Figure 6 (i.e., area contoured by a black rectangle on map c and d). Photo d is taken in August 2000 and shows the
stabilisation of the gully systems after afforestation with Eucalyptus trees (view on point 1 on the airphotos a, b and c).

Table 7. Summary statistics of the suspended sediment concentration (g/l) measurements, which are taken at the outlet of the Machangara
catchment (330 km 2) and the three sub-catchments of Chanlud (53 km 2), Compaña (20 km 2) and Ochoa Leon (36 km 2) for the time period
1994–2000.

Suspended Sediment Concentration (g/l) Machangara Chanlud Ochoa Leon Compaña

Mean 0.152 0.076 0.096 0.207

Median 0.141 0.075 0.092 0.178
Standard Deviation 0.045 0.016 0.027 0.072
Skewness 4.280 0.923 1.280 1.857

higher in Ochoa Leon than in Compaña while the
percentage of land strongly affected by water erosion
is similar for both catchments. Furthermore, both
catchments have a similar surface area and are situ-
ated next to each other in the same climatic zone.
Therefore, if land use would be the only control on
suspended sediment concentration, the Compaña and
the Ochoa Leon catchments would be expected to be-
have similarly and different from the Chanlud catch-
ment.
As differences in land use inventories cannot ex-
plain the different behaviour of the Ochoa Leon and
Compaña catchments in terms of suspended sediment
concentration, it is worthwhile to investigate the role
of the spatial distribution of sediment sources and
sinks with regard to the river system. The distance
from the sediment generating lands (i.e., each cell af-
fected by sheet- and rill erosion or by gully erosion)
to the nearest of a set of permanent channels was used
as a proxy for the spatial connectivity between sedi-
ment sources and the river network. The analysis was
only carried out for the Ochoa Leon and the Compaña
River catchment, as the Chanlud catchment lacks de-
graded areas. From Figure 9 it is clear that the spatial
connectivity between the areas of sediment produc-
tion and sediment export is much higher in the Com-

Figure 8. Plot of the sorted suspended sediment concentrations against their respective exceedence probability for the Machangara catch-
ment (330 km 2) and the three sub-catchments of Chanlud (53 km 2), Compaña (20 km 2) and Ochoa Leon (36 km 2).
paña catchment than in the Ochoa Leon catchment:
the sediment producing areas in the Compaña catch-
ment are mostly very close to the river channels. In
the Ochoa Leon catchment, areas with active gullies
are much farther from the rivers. Consequently, the
sediment delivery ratio (S.D.R.), i.e., the ratio be-
tween the total sediment export and the total sediment
production, can be expected to be higher in the Com-
paña River basin. As sediment production in the
Ochoa Leon and Compaña catchment is expected to
be similar based on the inventories of landuse and
occurrence of water erosion, the anticipated differ-
ences in S.D.R. explains why both catchments behave
different in terms of suspended sediment concentra-
tion. The fact that sediment load is also controlled by
the spatial organisation of land use within a catch-
ment implies that the effect of land use changes on
sediment load can only correctly be assessed if the
spatial distribution of the various land use classes is
taken into account.
Conclusions
Landuse in the Machangara catchment changed dra-
matically as a response to socio-economic, demo-
graphic and political changes. The land reform pro-
grams of the 1960s and 1970s caused a division of
13
the agricultural lands into smaller land units and an
intensification of the agricultural land use that became
stressed on crop production. The high demographic
growth intensified the ongoing land use changes: the
rural centres expanded very quickly, 41% of the sec-
ondary native woodland was cleared in less than 33
years, and considerable amounts of Eucalyptus forest
was planted for timber and wood production. The
landuse change manifests itself mainly along the ag-
ricultural frontier, where the secondary native forest
is increasingly removed and replaced by rangelands.
Despite the intensification of the agricultural landuse,
the overall forest cover did not decrease due to regen-
eration of secondary forest on abandoned rangelands
and afforestation with Eucalyptus trees on degraded
soils in the low-lying areas.
Despite the accelerated land use changes of the last
few decades, the area currently affected by water ero-
sion decreased from 598.3 ha in 1962 to 293.6 ha in
1995, at a mean annual rate of ca 11.3 ha. Stabilisa-
tion is due to the reforestation of highly degraded ar-
eas, driven by the increasing demand for commercial
wood.
The decrease of the area affected by water erosion
does not necessarily imply that the overall specific
sediment yield in the catchment is also declining, as
the geomorphic response of the river system to envi-
ronmental changes is often quite complex. Statistical
14
Figure 9. Distance from the sediment sources (i.e. areas affected by sheet- & rill erosion and by gully erosion) to the nearest river network
for the Ochoa Leon and the Compaña River catchment
analysis on a time series of suspended sediment con-
centrations, which were measured at the outlet of
three distinctive sub-catchments for a six-year period
(1994 – 2000), revealed a significant difference in
geomorphic activity of the three river systems. The
observed spatial variation in suspended sediment con-
centration at the outlet of the catchments cannot only
be explained by differences in landuse or extent of the
areas affected by water erosion. The distance from the
sediment generating lands to the nearest of a set of
permanent rivers was used as a proxy to assess the
importance of the spatial distribution of sediment
sources and sinks with regard to the river system. This
analysis revealed large differences in the spatial con-
nectivity between the sediment producing lands and
the river system, which explain -together with the
variations in landuse and extent of the degraded ar-
eas- the different behaviour of the catchments in
terms of sediment concentration.
Acknowledgements
This study formed part of the interdisciplinary project
“Land use dynamics and their geomorphic impacts in
the Machangara River drainage basin”, funded by
E.T.A.P.A. (Empresa Publica Municipal de Telecomu-
nicaciones, Agua Potable y Alcantarillado del Canton
Cuenca) and PROMAS (Programa para el Manejo del
Agua y Suelo, Universidad de Cuenca). The financial
support of the Fund for Scientific Research of
Flanders is also gratefully acknowledged. The authors
wish to thank R. Goercke, A. Molina and N.
Sarmiento for technical assistence by the photo-inter-
pretation and C. Iglesias for assistance in the field.
The comments and suggestions of two anonymous
reviewers were greatly acknowledged and improved
significantly an earlier draft of this manuscript.
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