Anthropic erosion: what it is and examples

The anthropogenic erosion or erosion caused by man , is the loss and / or alteration of the surface layer of soil , as a result of different actions that humans develop in the soil. This erosion phenomenon is also known as artificial erosion , as opposed to what is known as natural erosion, in which natural elements such as water and wind cause the erosion of the land or soil.

This natural process of soil erosion is linked to the evolutionary dynamics of the planet. In it, the combined action of water (water erosion, either due to rain or the action of rivers) and wind (wind erosion) drag and release particles from the soil surface and humus (upper part of the soil where organic remains decompose, thanks to the action of decomposing organisms and microorganisms : fungi and bacteria).

In this article we will focus only on anthropic erosion, to better understand how human beings erode the soil through different actions that we carry out in our day to day life.

Besides, we will tell you more about what is soil erosion, its causes and consequences in this other AgroCorrn article.

We can classify in a basic way two main types by which we come to produce anthropic erosion. These are the examples of anthropic erosion according to its type .

On the one hand, there is the erosion of construction (of cities, roads, industrial infrastructures, etc.). On the other hand, the anthropic erosion of exploitation, through deforestation, different techniques of intensive agriculture, excessive grazing and mines.

These human practices expose the soil to erosion to a greater or lesser extent, having as a triggering factor for such erosion the loss of the natural vegetation cover and the high layers of the soils. Let’s take a closer look at some examples of these anthropic practices to better understand how such erosion occurs.

Example of anthropic erosion of construction

As for the constructions that we carry out more and more frequently and on a larger scale to meet our demographic needs, it will be useful and positive to always carry out environmental risk impact studies before starting any construction on soils that still remained without any type of anthropic action. For those who have already suffered human action, follow-up studies will avoid possible soil erosion and its consequences.

Learn here what is an environmental risk and examples .

Example of anthropic erosion of exploitation

Focusing now on human exploitation erosion, it should be noted that since the beginning of the development of human culture, the main negative impacts of the agricultural revolution were reflected in soil erosion. The first civilizations grew from small settlements founded in places that offered favorable environmental conditions, such as the fertility of the soil and the availability of water. As the towns learned to modify these environmental conditions, the damage caused increased.

In this way, due to the overexploitation of the soil for crops in different parts of the world, the land became extremely weak, falling off as a result of the rains and thaws, and causing the subsequent uselessness of the land.

In this other post we tell you what is the overexploitation of natural resources, its causes and consequences .

For all this, we understand that soil erosion is an ancient, inevitable phenomenon that has increased over the years. Although at the beginning, the impact caused by human actions was hardly appreciable, at present, a civilized human settlement is not conceived without a certain degree of soil erosion.

For this reason, it is important to highlight the idea that anthropic erosion could not be eradicated, but can only be controlled . As we have seen previously, anthropic erosion is completely linked to the cultural and social development of the human being, therefore, taking into account that any action and decision we take in the present we do with a vision of future development, we must always consider that the impacts on nature (in this case, specifically on the ground), are as less negative and damaging as possible.