Morphometry and land cover based multi-criteria analysis for assessing the soil erosion susceptibility of the western Himalayan watershed

Abstract

Complex mountainous environments such as Himalayas are highly susceptibility to natural hazards particular those that are triggered by the action of water such as floods, soil erosion, mass movements and siltation of the hydro-electric power dams. Among all the natural hazards, soil erosion is the most implicit and the devastating hazard affecting the life and property of the millions of people living in these regions. Hence to review and devise strategies to reduce the adverse impacts of soil erosion is of utmost importance to the planners of watershed management programs in these regions. This paper demonstrates the use of satellite based remote sensing data coupled with the observational field data in a multi-criteria analytical (MCA) framework to estimate the soil erosion susceptibility of the sub-watersheds of the Rembiara basin falling in the western Himalaya, using geographical information system (GIS). In this paper, watershed morphometry and land cover are used as an inputs to the MCA framework to prioritize the sub-watersheds of this basin on the basis of their different susceptibilities to soil erosion. Methodology included the derivation of a set of drainage and land cover parameters that act as the indicators of erosion susceptibility. Further the output from the MCA resulted in the categorization of the sub-watersheds into low, medium, high and very high erosion susceptibility classes. A detailed prioritization map for the susceptible sub-watersheds based on the combined role of land cover and morphometry is finally presented. Besides, maps identifying the susceptible sub-watersheds based on morphometry and land cover only are also presented. The results of this study are part of the watershed management program in the study area and are directed to instigate appropriate measures to alleviate the soil erosion in the study area.

Multi-criteria-based sub-basin prioritization and its risk assessment of erosion susceptibility in Kansai–Kumari catchment area, India

“…Ranking order of geomorphic set-up has been assigned from the highest percentage area of buried pediments with lateritic capping, highly gullied land, inter-hill valley, pediplain, residual hills and rocky outcrop for highest erosovity, while flood plain deposits and valley fill deposits have been assigned rank from lowest percentage area as giving rank like geological setup (Jasrotia et al 2002;Patwary et al 2009;Gioia et al 2011). Ranking order of LULC has been assigned from the highest percentage area of cropland, laterite, water body and settlement as giving rank '1' and so on for highest erosovity, while the lowest percentage of dense forest and open forest in each sub-basin has been given rank '1' and next lowest value as rank '2' and so on for low erosion susceptibility (Altaf et al 2014;Perovic et al 2018). Ranking order of slope has been assigned from the highest percentage area of very steep slope (> 15°), steep slope (5°-10°), moderate slope (5°-10°) for high erosion susceptibility, while lowest percentage area under gentle slope (< 5°) in each sub-basin has been giving rank '1', second lowest value as giving rank '2' and so on for low erosion (Jasrotia et al 2002;Patwary et al 2009;Farhan and Anaba 2016).…”

“…Morphometric parameters help in estimating the rank priority that predicts the deficit and surplus zones of soil erosion in every sub-basin (Deepika et al 2013). Land use and land cover (LULC) change is another important integrating parameter for the estimation of basin prioritization and land degradation or deterioration of watershed status under GIS platform (Malik and Bhat 2014;Sujatha et al 2014;Altaf et al 2014). Ground slope and gradient of the drainage network provide the structural arrangement of three morphometric aspects, i.e.…”

A Multivariate Geomorphometric Approach to Prioritize Erosion-Prone Watersheds

“…The second classification method considered in this work was the compound parameter (Cp). Previous research has employed this approach for sustainable watershed planning and management [42]. Linear and shape parameters have been commonly used for this method, whereas the relief and basic parameters were additionally included in this study.…”

“…After this procedure was completed, the ranked values from each watershed were summed and then averaged to produce the Cp of each watershed. This average represents the collective impact of all the parameters, and is calculated according to Equation (2) [42]:…”

An Integrated Framework for Environmental Multi‐Impact Spatial Risk Analysis

“…There is increasing awareness in the risk and multicriteria decision analysis communities about the importance of the spatial dimension in environmental risk assessment. (2,3,9) This growing interest promoted the development of risk assessment models in many different areas of application, ranging from landslide susceptibility mapping, (10) to seismic hazard evaluation, (11) flood hazard zoning, (12,13) health diseases epidemics, (14) fire and phytosanitary risk management for plant species, (15) risk invasion for plant species, (16) fire risk, (2,(17)(18)(19) , earthquake hazards, (20) erosion risk, (21) ecological risk assessment, (22,23) and industrial contamination risk, (9,24) to name the most common ones.…”