Abstract
Prioritizing micro-watersheds in hilly areas is crucial for planning environmental rehabilitation practices under limited financial resources. In this study, two watershed prioritization approaches, i.e., morphometric analysis and revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE), were employed and compared to prioritize the micro-watersheds located in Northwestern Shivalik foothills (India) by using remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) tools. The digital elevation model (DEM) obtained from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) was used to delineate the nine micro-watersheds (MWS-1 to MWS-9). The area of these micro-watersheds ranges from 88.03 ha (MWS-4) to 376.72 ha (MWS-7). The average annual soil loss varied between 63.46 tons ha−1 year−1 (MWS-1) and 5.73 tons ha−1 year−1 (MWS-8). The morphometric analysis was done based on linear, areal, shape, and relief parameters. The outcomes derived from the morphometric analysis and RUSLE model showed that the MWS-1 is prone to soil erosion and needs appropriate soil and water conservation practices before other MWSs. In addition, the MWS-1 and MWS-8 were given the most and least priority, respectively, with both the approaches. Moreover, the results of comparison among the morphometric analysis and RUSLE approaches revealed that both the methods are potentially viable for prioritizing the micro-watersheds for planning and implementation of land and water conservation strategies.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to Dr. Brijendra Pateriya, Director, Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, Ludhiana, Punjab, India, for providing the satellite imagery and necessary facilities to carry out the study. The authors are also thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve this manuscript further.
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Formal analysis, N L Kushwaha, Ahmed Elbeltagi, Sushant Mehan, Anurag Malik, and Abrar Yousuf; investigation, N L Kushwaha; methodology, N L Kushwaha; resources, N L Kushwaha; software, N L Kushwaha; visualization, N L Kushwaha, Ahmed Elbeltagi, and Sushant Mehan; writing—original draft, N L Kushwaha and Abrar Yousuf; writing—review and editing, N L Kushwaha, Ahmed Elbeltagi, Sushant Mehan, Anurag Malik, and Abrar Yousuf.
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Kushwaha, N., Elbeltagi, A., Mehan, S. et al. Comparative study on morphometric analysis and RUSLE-based approaches for micro-watershed prioritization using remote sensing and GIS. Arab J Geosci 15, 564 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-09837-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-09837-2