Multi-Criteria Watershed Prioritization of Kas Basin in Maharashtra India: AHP and Influence Approaches

Abstract

Watershed is unique bio-physical unit of the Earth’s surface and source of resources to the people. These resources are being exploited for various purposes. AHP based multi-criteria analysis is useful for prioritization of watersheds for planning, management and development. Nineteen criterion i.e. Rb, Lb, A, Lb, P, Dd, P, Fs, Rf, Re, CC, Dt, T, Di, If, Rh1, Rn , slope and soils were selected for prioritization of sub-watersheds of Kas basin in Maharashtra (India). Correlation analysis suitable for robust judgment for ranking the criterion was used for prioritization of selected watersheds. Drainage intensity (27.80%), texture ratio (13.90%), bifurcation ratio (9.27%), geology (6.95%) and basin length (5.56%) show higher influence on formation of watershed structure in the region. Influences of criterion were estimated based on weights calculated using AHP techniques. Values of influences were normalized using distribution of selected criterion within the sub-watersheds. Watersheds were classified into three categories of priorities: high, moderate and low priorities. The methodology formulated in this study can be efficient tool for rapid prioritization of watersheds for planning and management for development.

The Implementation of a Hybrid Model for Hilly Sub-Watershed Prioritization Using Morphometric Variables: Case Study in India

“…The authors suggested different thematic maps integrated with morphometric variables to determine the suitable areas for citing water and soil conservation measures. In India, several studies on watershed prioritization have been performed based on morphometric analysis using the potential of RS and GIS techniques [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

Prioritization and identification of vulnerable sub-watersheds using morphometric analysis and an integrated AHP-VIKOR method

“…AHP is a MCDM (Multi criteria decision making) method that uses a pairwise comparison procedure to determine the preference scale between alternatives (Saaty 1980). According to the review, various studies have suggested that AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) provides a viable decision among different alternatives in watershed prioritization by reducing biases among the parameters (Kundu et al 2017;Gaikwad & Bhagat 2018;Balasubramani et al 2019;Bera & Banik 2019;Kumar & Sarkar 2022;Shivhare et al 2022). On the contrary, few researchers have claimed that VIKOR (VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje) method has higher accuracy for prioritization (Amiri et al 2018;Arab et al 2018;Bhattacharya et al 2020;Meshram et al 2020;Taek et al 2022).…”

Watershed prioritization for soil erosion mapping in the Lesser Himalayan Indian basin using PCA and WSA methods in conjunction with morphometric parameters and GIS-based approach

“…In recent research on soil erosion focuses on the different hilly regions, i.e. Deccan plateau (Gaikwad and Bhagat, 2017;Telore, 2020); northern plateau (Yadav et al, 2018); Western Ghats (Thomas and Thrivikramji 2018;Choudhari et al, 2018;Kadam et al, 2019a); Eastern Ghats (Markose and Jayappa, 2016;Hembram and Saha, 2020); north-eastern parts (Ahmed et al, 2017;Mandal and Mandal, 2018); and northwestern parts (Chauhan et al, 2016;Singh and Singh, 2018;Siddiqui et al, 2020) of India. Most parts of the Himalayan region is made up of fragile rocks, such as sandstone, grits, shale, conglomerates.…”