He function of different elements and their interactions, offering a fantastic potential, and they’ve been increasingly utilized in recent years [16]. Within this study, a pre-existing inventory map of gully erosion was employed for the evaluation and validation of a stochastic method primarily based on mechanical statistics (MaxEnt) [57]ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10,3 ofto assess the driving variables for the two varieties of gully erosion and to derive their spatial susceptibility distribution. Makisterone A custom synthesis Ultimately, we delineated the colluvial deposits starting from the gully susceptibility map in an effort to refine the distribution of colluvium in unique terrain settings across the study area.SPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER two. Components and Procedures REVIEW4 of2.1. Study Region Description, Landform Inventory and ClassificationThe study area is located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, specifically in the upper part from the Mkhomazi River basin (Figure 1). The region covers about 500 km2 photo interpretation based on Google EarthTM satellite images (year 2016) and orthophotos and is dominated by the Drakensberg Mountain foothills. The elevation ranges among (year 2009) provided 2269 m Council for Geoscience of South Africa. The classification was 1051 m a.s.l. and by the a.s.l. (Figure 2a). The significant drainage system on the area is validated for the duration of a field survey key tributaries: the 2019. The resulting coaching database the Mkhomazi River with two in 2017, 2018 and Mkhomazana and Lotheni Rivers (Figure 1). contained 122 gully erosion features: 85 gullies of sort A and 37 places of type B gullies.Figure 1. Study region inin the upper Mkhomazi River catchment. Figure 1. Study region the upper Mkhomazi River catchment.The region is characterized by a subtropical highland climate (Cwb), based on the K pen climate classification [58]. The average rainfall amounts to 920 mm/year based around the 1970005 precipitation time series [59]. One of the most common land use is stock grazing on the grassland that covers about 66 on the study location, followed by thickets or shrubland covering 7 and commercial afforestation (Pinus patula and Eucalypts) covering six (Figure 2b) [60].ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10, 729 ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEWof 22 54 ofFigure 2. Traits in the study location: (a) elevation variety (derived in the TanDEM-X) and (b) land use classes [60]. Figure two. Qualities of the study region: (a) elevation range (derived in the TanDEM-X) and (b) land use classes [60].From a HNHA manufacturer geological point of view, the KwaZulu-Natal hinterland area is characterized by the sedimentary rocks of the Karoo Supergroup succession. Within the Drakensberg foothills region, one of the most comprehensive unit would be the Beaufort Group, comprising Permo riassic mudstone and sandstones [613] with the lower Adelaide Subgroup and upper Tarkastad Subgroup [64]. The Adelaide Subgroup consists mainly of siltstones, mudstones and subordinate very fine- to medium-grained sandstone. The Tarkastad Subgroup comprises far more abundant fine- to medium-grained sandstone units and brown-colored mudstones than the Adelaide Subgroup [614]. The Karoo sedimentary succession is intruded by Jurassic dolerite dykes and sills [44,65]. Widespread Masotcheni Formation deposits around the middle-to-lower hillslopes [25,49] on the study region comprise successions of colluvial sediments and buried paleosols [44,66]. The hillslope deposits are characterized by sediment derived from weathered claysto.
