Assessment of Soil Erosion Susceptibility Based on Morphometric and Landcover Analysis: A Case Study of Netravati River Basin, India

In this study, we assess the soil erosion susceptibility at the sub-basins scale using remote sensing data with the integration of the Geographical Information System (GIS) for the Netravati river basin in Western Ghats, India. The Cartosat digital elevation model was used for the calculation of morphometric parameters, and Landsat satellite images were used for land cover classification. The whole river basin was divided into five sub-basins for identifying the spatial variation of morphometric parameters and different land use categories. A weighted sum approach (WSA) was used for the ranking of each morphometric parameter and land use types. Then each sub-basin was assigned as very low, low, medium, high, and very high priority ranking. The final prioritization map based on the combined (morphometric and land cover) analysis showed erosion susceptibility is very high for sub-basin 4, high for sub-basin 2, medium for sub-basin 5, low for sub-basin 1, and very low for sub-basin 3. Further, the soil erosion susceptibility analysis has been done separately for morphometric and land cover at the sub-basins scale. The results of this study will be useful for the water resource manager and policymaker while considering the soil erosion-prone areas in the region, and the methodology can be adapted for other river basins.