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Prioritization of sub-watersheds for soil conservation management using morphometric, biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics: a fuzzy AHP approach

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Abstract

In this study, sub-watersheds of Manjira River basin in India is assessed for necessity of soil conservation studies by incorporating morphometric, biophysical and socioeconomic parameters using ArcGIS and Generalised Watershed Loading Function (GWLF) model. Morphometric parameters include watershed aspect, linear aspect, shape aspect and landscape aspect. The biophysical parameters considered are vegetation change, erosion and sediment loadings. The socioeconomic parameters considered are population density, literacy rate and agriculture worker density. The sub-basins were prioritized applying the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) into five priority classes, namely, “Very High”, “High”, “Medium”, “Low” and “Very Low”, covering approximately 36.4%, 15.5%, 24.4%, 11.39% and 11.28% of the surveyed area. An area of 2027.629 km2 was found to be in the very high risk priority class with respect to soil conservation management to be applied in the respective sub-basins.

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The authors declare that some of the data used in the study would be made available on reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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  1. Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Rourkela, Rourkela, Odisha, India

    Priya Sahu, Snehit Bakkashetti & Sanat Nalini Sahoo

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  1. Priya Sahu
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  2. Snehit Bakkashetti
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  3. Sanat Nalini Sahoo
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Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by PS (for biophysical and socioeconomic parameters) and BS (for morphometric parameters). Technical suggestion, editing and correction is done by SNS.

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Correspondence to Sanat Nalini Sahoo.

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Sahu, P., Bakkashetti, S. & Sahoo, S.N. Prioritization of sub-watersheds for soil conservation management using morphometric, biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics: a fuzzy AHP approach. Environ Earth Sci 83, 102 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-023-11410-3

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