Chandra Sekhar Matli ,
Professor and Head, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India
Corresponding author Email – mcs@nitw.ac.in
Nimmy John
Former Graduate Student, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India
Received on 08.08.2020, revised on 23.11.2010, Accepted on 11.12.2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.47884/jweam.v1i3pp07-15
ABSTRACT
Soil loss from watersheds significantly influences the fertility soils and natural environment and hence it is a seriousconcern across the globe. Soil conservation is the top priority in watershed management though it is impractical tocompletely control soil erosion from all parts of watershed and hence achieve soil conservation. As controlling soilerosion in watersheds at micro level is difficult, broad measures which are economical and feasible arerecommended for soil conservation. In order to plan suitable conservation techniques, it is essential to prioritizewatersheds based on vulnerability to soil erosion. For identifying suitable soil conservation methods, it is necessaryto consider critical erosion zones, threats to lives and property, socio-economic constraints and local challenges.Assessment of soil erosion is very important for arriving at the prioritization of watersheds for soil conservation.This paper reports the findings of the study carried out on Janagoan Mandal in Warangal District with hell of GIStechniques. Estimation of soil loss from the watershed is estimated using Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE).Using the data available with various agencies, average annual erosion is estimated by developing GIS maps for sixmajor watershed parameters. The watershed has been divided into sub watersheds and prioritization study is carriedout considering factors that influence soil erosion. Using GIS tool and Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), thesoil loss from the watershed is estimated and high risk zones are demarked. Soil loss from 80% of the watershed areais in the range of 0 – 200 tons/ha/year, while the high risk zones of erosion are about 12% of the area. Watershedmanagement practices are recommended to reduce the soil loss from the high risk zones.
Keywords : Soil erosion; Watershed; high risk erosion zones; USLE, GIS, Soil erodibility factor, Soil conservationfactor.