Over one billion tons of topsoil are lost every year due to erosion. Thus, some preventative measures need to be taken to protect the environment and restore a balance. There are a lot of preventative measures that can help in protecting the soil from erosion. These measures can be easily categorises into two categories, biological measures and engineering measures.

Soil erosion does not only take away precious topsoil but also causes pollution in waterways, landslide, and an increased flooding risk. This urgently calls for erosion control.

Erosion control is the exercise of preventing water or wind erosion in the land, construction, coastal areas, and agricultural areas. Effective erosion controls can help avert a surface runoff, which in turn prevents soil loss, water pollution, and wildlife habitat loss.

Biological measures for control

1. Strip Cropping – This involves growing diverse crops in alternate strips across the slope such that they can act as vegetative barriers to erosion. Strip cropping can be further of four different types. These include:

• Contour strip cropping 
• Field strip cropping
• Buffer strip cropping
• Wind strip cropping

1. Crop rotation – This helps in preventing soil erosion, enhancing soil fertility, increasing the growth of organic matter of soil and therefore betterment of physical conditions of the soil. Lastly, crop rotation can also help in controlling weed growth. 
2. Mixed Cropping – This method involves the growth of more than one crop on the same land altogether. This helps in better use of plant nutrients, decreasing wind effects by growing both tall as well as short crops etc.

Engineering Measures to Control Erosion

1. Bunding – It is an engineering measure used for controlling soil erosion wherein bunds are known as embankments that are constructs across the land. Through bunding, the area is divides into many smaller parts such that the slope length gets reduces. This leads to a reduction in soil erosion along with retaining the runoff water in the surrounding area of the bund. 
2. Contour Trenching – It is one technique use for soil conservation to intercept the runoff. Here, several trenches are excavates along the contour in a uniform level across the land slope at the top portion of the field. The contour trench serves the purpose of breaking the runoff velocity and intercepting the runoff. 
3. Terracing – Terracing is also an engineering method that helps in reducing soil erosion in sloped areas. It includes the construction of embankments and steps of structure to check the flow of surface runoff and limit the loss of soil. 
4. Grassed Waterways – These refer to the ways to drain or divert the runoff from the catchment. The area was also construct along the slope of the area. 

Read Also :

• Factors Impacting Erosion
• Impact Of Erosion On Human Settlements
• Fluvial Erosion and Landforms Thus Formed