Mapping of Land Degradation Vulnerability in the Semi-Arid Watershed of Rajasthan, India

Abstract

Global soils are under extreme pressure from various threats due to population expansion, economic development, and climate change. Mapping of land degradation vulnerability (LDV) using geospatial techniques play a significant role and has great importance, especially in semi-arid climates for the management of natural resources in a sustainable manner. The present study was conducted to assess the spatial distribution of land degradation hotspots based on some important parameters such as land use/land cover (LULC), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), terrain characteristics (Topographic Wetness Index and Multi-Resolution Index of Valley Bottom Flatness), climatic parameters (land surface temperature and mean annual rainfall), and pedological attributes (soil texture and soil organic carbon) by using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and GIS techniques in the semi-arid region of the Bundi district, Rajasthan, India. Land surface temperature (LST) and NDVI products were derived from time-series Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) datasets, rainfall data products from Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), terrain characteristics from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), LULC from Landsat 9, and pedological variables from legacy soil datasets. Weights derived for thematic layers from the AHP in the studied area were as follows: LULC (0.38) > NDVI (0.23) > ST (0.15) > LST (0.08) > TWI (0.06) > MAR (0.05) > SOC (0.03) > MRVBF (0.02). The consistency ratio (CR) for all studied parameters was <0.10, indicating the high accuracy of the AHP. The results show that about 20.52% and 23.54% of study area was under moderate and high to very high vulnerability of land degradation, respectively. Validation of LDV zones with the help of ultra-high-resolution Google Earth imageries indicates good agreement with the model outputs. The research aids in a better understanding of the influence of land degradation on long-term land management and development at the watershed level.

Assessment of Three GPM IMERG Products for GIS-Based Tropical Flood Hazard Mapping Using Analytical Hierarchy Process

“…However, please note that the AHP method requires all geospatial data to be consistent and in the same resolution. Many GIS-based AHP studies have utilized the simple bilinear resampling technique to resample the pixel values of SPPs to a higher resolution [62][63][64][65], but resampling errors might occur, particularly in complex topography and mountainous areas. The minimization of these errors using optimal downscaling techniques, i.e., geographically weighted regression, and cubist and artificial neural networks (ANNs) [126], before applying SPPs in the GIS-based AHP simulations should be considered in the future.…”

“…To achieve a consistent resolution, the GPM IMERG products were resampled to a 30 m resolution using the bilinear interpolation (BL) method, as recommended by Ulloa et al [62], who applied the same approach to resample the TRMM 3B43V7 product due to its simplicity. It has been recognized as a common technique to resample SPPs before performing the AHP method [63][64][65]. However, bilinear interpolation may lead to the smoothing of the precipitation field, potentially reducing the precision of the estimates.…”

Assessment of Mining-Induced Land Degradation in Ile-Ife, Osun State Nigeria

“…The high LST in the study area (Fig. 8), ranges from 70.03 o C to 79.71 o C. The high LST values which may be connected to the removal of vegetal cover by artisanal miners has been implicated as a cause of land degradation (Malav et al, 2022). Also, land surfaces in the built-up areas tend to lose soil moisture due to evaporation as a result of their direct exposure to sunlight and activities of the miners, while biomass addition under a forest is substantially higher, resulting in soil organic carbon buildup and less soil degradation (Mzuri et al 2021).…”

Applications of GIS and Remote Sensing in Soil Environment Monitoring

“…In this volume, various aspects of environmental monitoring have been addressed in a logical framework. In some cases, the focus was on hazard detection and mapping [9][10][11][12][13]; in others, the focus was on the detection and description of soil properties and their contribution to land use determination [14][15][16]. The papers addressed the issues at different scales: regional scale [10,13,14,17]; watershed scale [9,12]; and field scale [11,17].…”

“…In some cases, the focus was on hazard detection and mapping [9][10][11][12][13]; in others, the focus was on the detection and description of soil properties and their contribution to land use determination [14][15][16]. The papers addressed the issues at different scales: regional scale [10,13,14,17]; watershed scale [9,12]; and field scale [11,17]. The GIS approach is indeed useful for implementing an analytical model at multiple scales, even for estimating soil erosion [18].…”