AHP and TOPSIS Based Sub-Watershed Prioritization and Tectonic Analysis of Ami River Basin, Uttar Pradesh

Soil erosion is a major consequence which usually reduces soil productivity. The identification of its susceptible zones is essential in order to apply preventive measures in any basin. A detailed morphometric evaluation of Ami river basin is done using Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data of 30m resolution. Technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) based prioritization and characterization of sub-watersheds is important to plan and manage the natural resources of a region. Total 18 sub-watersheds with an outlet having 4(th) order drainage were selected for the prioritization purpose for soil erosion susceptibility zones with the help of 10 morphometric parameters. The sub-watersheds were ordered from SW-I to SW-XVIII. In this regard, SW-XV has the highest priority (0.628) and higher soil erosion while SW-XVIII (0.317) has lowest conditions for soil erosion. Various tectonic and sinuosity related parameters are calculated and analyzed like hypsometric integral (0.49), asymmetric factor (50.1) and transverse topographic symmetric factor suggesting good symmetry of basin with no tectonic tilt. The value of standard sinuosity index (1.2) suggests that Ami river is naturally sinuous stream. Morphometric parameters suggest less structurally controlled and normal category of the basin. The basin has coarse texture of drainage with highly suspect to soil erosion and high run off.