Prioritizing erosion-prone area through morphometric analysis: an RS and GIS perspective

The geomorphological characteristics of a watershed are more commonly used for developing the regional hydrological models for solving various hydrological problems of the ungauged watersheds in inadequate data situations. Therefore, in this study to find out the most vulnerable sub-watershed to soil erosion, morphometric analysis and prioritization were carried out on 14 subwatersheds of Manot River catchment, which is a tributary of the Narmada River. The morphometric parameters considered for analysis are stream order, stream length, stream frequency, drainage density, texture ratio, form factor, circulatory ratio, elongation ratio, bifurcation ratio and compactness ratio. After analysis of morphometric parameters, compound parameter values are calculated and prioritization rating of 14 sub-watersheds is carried out. The sub-watershed 13 that has the lowest compound parameter value of 3.63 is likely to be subjected to maximum soil erosion; hence, it requires immediate attention to providing soil conservation measures. Morphological parameters-based prioritization is in good agreement with the geological field investigation carried out during the field work.