An integrated method has been adopted to estimate soil loss in a plateau and plateau fringe river basin where soil erosion is significant. The integration of Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation model and geographical Information technology has been used for soil loss estimation. In GIS platform, the overlay of rainfall-runoff erosivity factor, soil erodibility factor, slope length factor, slope steepness factor, cover and management factor, support and conservation practices factor results that the high amount of soil loss (more than 100 t ha-1 year-1) is significantly low and occupies 0.08% of the entire study area. High soil loss in upstream of the basin has a close relation to LS and K factor and drainage density. As a result of soil loss in the upper catchment areas, reservoir capacity has been depleted both in dead and live storage space. It is concluded that soil erosion has a significant impact on plateau fringe areas and the estimation of soil loss is an essential input for the adoption of proper land use planning and development strategies.

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The Krishna-Godavari coastal region in east coast of India has a 525.15-kmlong coastline with low-lying tidal mudflats, beaches, mangrove swamp, creek and tidal channels. Recently, the increasing frequency of tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, i.e., Phylin and Hudhud in Andhra Pradesh coast, and the devastating impact of the 2004 tsunami in India increased the significance in assessing the vulnerability of the coastal lands to inundation and flooding, notably in the context of climate change-induced sea level rise. This study aims to estimate a coastal vulnerability index (CVI) for the coastal subregion of Krishna-Godavari delta and to use the calculated index to evaluate the vulnerability of 14 coastal talukas of the Krishna-Godavari delta region. This CVI is calculated by using four geological and three physical parameters characterizing the vulnerability of the study coastal region, including regional slope, coastal elevation, geomorphology, significant wave height, mean tidal range and relative sea level using different conventional and remotely sensed data. Using a composite coastal vulnerability index based on the relative risk rating of those parameters, each of the 14 coastal talukas was classified according to their vulnerability. The CVI results depict that coasts are least and most vulnerable to inundation, flooding and erosion of coastal lands where geological parameters are more efficient to CVI. The paper alerts to decision makers and planners to mitigate the natural disaster and manage the coastal zone and is a primary step toward prioritizing coastal lands for climate change adaptation strategies in the view of increased storminess and projected sea level rise.

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The study emphasizes the local and regional level coastal vulnerability in the context of climate change induced present sea level rise using Sea level and tidal gauge data and advanced geo spatial technologies along the eastern coast of India. The coast is a potential hot spot zone were found the immediate effect of sea level rise. Presently climate change induced global warming and the melting of ice sheets and continental glaciers continually increase the sea level, which leads the natural hazards such as Tsunami, storm surges, thermal expansion of sea water and cyclones. The study was used SRTM global DEM with 90 m resolution to derive the coastal elevation, inundation risk zones along the eastern coast of India. The sea level rise scenario has been explained by using a 5 th order polynomial curve which also interpolates and extrapolate the gaps within the available data of four tidal gauge stations. The results show that northern portion (Ganga-Brahmaputra delta region) of the coast, mostly affected by the sea level rise (4.7 mm per year) where the Sundarban region is the most vulnerable region due to the lower elevation (ranges 0 to 20 m) and higher tidal influence. Also Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar have a higher rate of sea level rise respectively 0.73 and 0.43 which increase the erosional activity and probable inundation level. As this study reveals the level of vulnerability, it helps to develop mitigation and adaptation measures in those most vulnerable areas to sea level rise problems. The final results support and suggests planners and decision makers in the spatial identification for the future strategies.