ARAHAN PEMANFAATAN LAHAN BERDASARKAN ASPEK EROSI TANAH, KEMAMPUAN LAHAN, DAN TEKANAN PENDUDUK DI SUB DAS CIPELES HULU, DAS CIMANUK

Degradation of watershed is the fact that cannot be denied in a recent time. The high growth rate of population causes land conversion and inappropriate land utilization which affect to the environment. Those may cause soil erosion and critical land. The aim of this research was to give the referal on land utilization in Upper Cipeles Sub-Watershed, Cimanuk Watershed, which is the first priority watershed to be managed. This research used a land unit approach for the analysis. The calculation of soil erosion used an USLE method. Land capability classification was determined based on delimitator factors. While, population pressure on land was determined based on social economic analysis on research area. Finally, the referal on land utilization was formulated based on those three aspects. Upper Cipeles Sub-Watershed had an average of soil erosion rate of 260.19 tons/ha/year. This erosion rate exceeded standard rate of soil loss tolerance in the research area which is 15.64 tons/ha/year. The high of the erosion rate was caused by inappropriate land utilization with its capability and less of soil protection treatments, especially on steep areas. This sub-watershed had a high population pressure on land category (3.68). The referal models formulated was divided into 3 main groups: a) the actual land uses appropriated with the land capability, had a low or moderatevery high erosion index, and located in low or moderate-high population pressure regions, were keeped on by executing additional input on soil conservation treatments (vegetative methods: cover crops and plant residue and mechanic methods: make terraces). In this model, the shrub and dry land agriculture were converted to be community forest/mix plantation as the effort on optimizing land utilization in the moderate-high population pressure regions (especially for shrub) and on managing erosion in the low population pressure regions (especially for dry land agriculture