How could you stop erosion from taking place?

It is impossible to stop erosion completely, but you can slow it down for a period of time. There are several types of erosion including wind, water and chemical. Each type needs to be treated differently.

With wind erosion, the key is to reduce the amount of force that the moving air can impart to the soil surface. One technique of doing this is to establish a windbreak. The windbreak can be planted trees, a solid or semi-solid fence or a soil berm (kind of like an inverted trench). The windbreak is set up perpendicular to the direction of the prevailing wind direction. For example, if the wind usually comes from the South, the windbreak needs to run East to West. This disperses the force of the wind, protecting the soil that is upwind of the windbreak for a certain distance. The taller the windbreak, the wider the area of soil that it can protect.

Another technique is to plant grasses and other plants with extensive root systems in the soil. Or, you can cover the soil with things like wood chips, mulched leaves and rocks that are larger than 1" in diameter (smaller rocks will just blow away eventually). These techniques cover the soil surface and deflect most of the force of the wind. There is still wind erosion occurring, but it is minute compared to what takes place on bare soil.

As a very temporary measure, you can spray water on the soil to keep it from blowing. An even better approach is to spray something called hydromulch which is a mixture of water and ground paper. Sometimes hydromulch also contains seeds and fertilizer so that grass and/or vines can provide more permanent cover later on. Wind erosion relies on being able to lift soil particles into the air. Wet soil weights more than dry so it takes much more force to lift particles of it.

The other main source of erosion is water power. The best way to reduce water erosion, is to plant grasses, vines and other plants with extensive root systems. You can also cover the surface with rocks as above, only you need to pile on a thicker layer of rock so that the water does not just go under the rocks and wash the soil out from under them. I have seen water with enough force (such as in a storm drain or creek) carry rocks the size of a small car several miles downstream in one strong storm event.

Another technique that works well is to build up berms called terraces. Terraces are dug into the surface of the soil and arranged so that they run perpendicular to the slope of the land. If the slope is a North facing slope, for example, the terraces will run east to west. It is also important to calculate the percent of the slope and to know what type of soil you are working with (sandy, clay, loam, silt etc) so that you know how far apart to place the terraces. It's also good to know what the strongest possible rainstorm event could be in your area. Places that get more rain than others need wider and taller terraces to carry all that water. The steeper the slope and the weaker the soil, the closer the terraces need to be spaced. The terraces run across the slope, but they also have a bit of a slope to them as well. In other words one end of the terrace is higher up the hill than the other end. This way, the water will run down the terrace and over to a grassed or rock covered waterway. Otherwise, it will just fill with water and overflow.

The last main source of erosion is chemical. This is caused partially by water but the main thing doing the actual erosion are the salts and acids that are dissolved in the water. A perfect example of chemical erosion is a limestone cave. Limestone caves are open spaces underground where some of the limestone has been dissolved by acidic water. You can see how this works in your kitchen at home. Take some baking soda and mix a bit of fresh water with it so that you can pack it down into a lump. Then, pour a bit of vinegar on the lump. You'll see bubbles fizz up. If you do this enough, you'll see the lump seem to vanish. What is happening is that the acid in the vinegar is changing some of the carbon in the baking soda into carbon dioxide gas (the bubbles). Limestone is made up from fossilized coral and shells. The acid breaks down the stuff that these coral and shells are made from in a similar way to how it breaks down the baking soda.

There is very little that can be done to prevent or reduce chemical erosion. The main thing is to realize that it can happen and to avoid building anything on an area where this type of erosion is likely to be happening. Failure to take chemical erosion into consideration is responsible for a lot of the stories you hear about people's homes falling into sinkholes in places like southern Florida.

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