Susceptibility and Management of River Bank Materials to Erosion - A Case Study of Ganga-Bhagirathi River, West Bengal, India

It is very much fundamental to identify the susceptibility of river bank materials to erosion for implementing management strategies. The present paper intends to find out the susceptibility of river bank materials to erosion and it also focuses on vulnerability assessment based on susceptibility of river bank materials to erosion. A vulnerability assessment model based on susceptibility of river bank material to erosion has been used in this study. To satisfy the objectives of this study, a stretch of river Ganga-Bhagirathi in Jangipur sub-division under the district of Murshidabad has been selected. The results of the study show that aggregate stability of the soil in study area is less than 10% and the percentage of aggregated clay (less than 8%) and organic matter (less than 0.5%) in the soil are also very less. The areas categorized as high susceptibility to erosion are highly vulnerable than the rest.