Abstract
Erosion status resulting from the denudation process in data-limited basins can be achieved through analysis of hydro-morphological parameters. This study aims to the identification of erosion-prone areas using morphometric, hypsometric, and compound factor approaches in the Ruvu River Basin (RRB), Tanzania under a geoinformatics environment. The morphometric and hypsometric parameters were successfully computed. The hypsometric integral (HI) and Compound Factor (CF) ranking techniques were used to assess the erosional vulnerability of the basin. It was found that RRB is a 5th stream order basin having 475 total stream segments and an overall area of 5512.54 km2 with a dendritic-type drainage pattern. The bifurcation ratio for the sub-basins from 2.64 to 12 reflects the structural stability of the basin. Drainage density values of 0.121–0.967 km/km2 indicate the coarser soil formation, covered by dense vegetation, with low to moderate soil erosion. Results from shape parameters viz.; form factor (0.18–0.441); circularity ratio (0.019–0.424); elongation ratio (0.479–0.749) and compactness ratio (1.536–7.225) indicates sub-basins are elongated in shape, taking moderate lag times for peak runoff to occur, and have low to moderate soil erosion. Ruggedness number (1.625–3.110) confirms that SB1, SB2, SB4, and SB15 are situated in the highly elevated regions of the RRB, and exhibit moderate to steep slopes. These localities have a sturdy influence on intrinsically erosional susceptibility. The hypsometric curve shows the maturity stages of sub-basins and the hypsometric integral exhibits its erosivity in terms of numeric magnitude. Based on both HI and CF prioritization, SB15 has the highest susceptibility to soil erosion followed by SB1 and SB7, ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively. The study proposes that remedial measures, including engineering and non-engineering means, should be considered for SB15 to mitigate soil erosion in the study area.
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Michael, D., Meena, R.S., Kumar, B. et al. Identification of erosion-prone areas using morphometric, hypsometric, and compound factor approaches in the Ruvu River Basin, Tanzania. Model. Earth Syst. Environ. 10, 1375–1394 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-023-01829-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-023-01829-9