Vulnerability Assessment of Soil Erosion/Deposition in a Himalayan Watershed using a Remote Sensing and GIS Based Sediment Yield Model
Journal Title: International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences (IJCMAS) - Year 2017, Vol 6, Issue 3
Abstract
Soil erosion strongly affects crop yield, undermines the long term productivity of farm land and sustainability of farming system, and poses a major threat to the livelihood of the farmers and rural communities. The United Nations Environmental Program reported that the productivity of soil has reduced and resulting in economically unfeasible cultivation on about 20 million hectare of land each year due to soil erosion and resulting degradation of land. The eroded soil is also a major cause of loss of storage capacity (1 to 2% annual reduction globally) of multipurpose reservoirs due to sedimentation which affects society at large. In developing countries like India, limited data availability constrains the application of the sophisticated models in proper planning of erosion control measures. In the present study, a simple spatially distributed model has been formulated in GIS environment for mapping areas vulnerable to soil erosion and deposition in a Himalayan watershed from India. The model discretizes the spatial domain of catchment into homogenous grids/cells to capture the catchment heterogeneity and derived net erosion and deposition maps by considering gross soil erosion and transport capacity of each cell. Spatial distribution capability of the model has been checked at outlet as well as three upstream gauging sites using eight years historical sediment yield data. The model estimated the seasonal sediment yield with less than ±30% errors. Finally, entire watershed has been classified into six different severity scales of erosion i.e. slight, moderate, high, very high, severe and very sever. Such maps have immense significance to prioritize area specific watershed conservation and management measures.
Authors and Affiliations
S. S. Rawat, M. K. Jain, K. S. Rawat, B. Nikam, S. K. Mishra
Keywords
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- EP ID EP569497
- DOI 10.20546/ijcmas.2017.603.004
- Views 73
- Downloads 0
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