Modern activities such as intensive farming, deforestation and urbanisation can accelerate erosion by reducing protective soil cover from vegetation and litter, compacting soil, and increasing field size, thereby decreasing obstacles to runoff.
Under intensive agriculture with frequent soil tillage and the use of heavy machinery, erosivity of surface runoff is enhanced by ploughing, leading to concentration of overland flow in furrows and decreasing resistance to flow. Compaction of the topsoil further enhances overland flow generation by reducing water infiltration capacity, which increases total overland flow. Ploughing also affects soil erodibility by destroying soil aggregates and decreasing soil organic matter content.
In forestry, logging and wood extraction reduce rain interception, expose more soil to splash erosion, and decrease resistance, resulting in greater and faster overland flow. Additionally, temporary or semi-permanent roads for timber extraction cause significant soil compaction and erosion.
Urbanisation increases the total area of impermeable surfaces. Water collected on these surfaces, if not properly managed, poses a risk of increased erosion on downstream (agricultural) land by increasing the overland flow rate.
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