1. Soil erosion assessment and watershed prioritization using GIS-based RUSLE in lower Shivaliks of Northwest India
- Author
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Abrar Yousuf, Navneet Sharma, Mohammad Amin Bhat, Anil Khokhar, Parminder Singh Sandhu, Balwinder Singh Dhillon, Ahmed Abdullah Al Dughairi, Hussein Almohamad, and Hazem Ghassan Abdo
- Subjects
Prioritization ,RUSLE ,Shivaliks ,soil erosion ,environment ,Ecology ,QH540-549.5 ,Geology ,QE1-996.5 - Abstract
Application of RUSLE and GIS was carried out to estimate soil erosion in Rupnagar district, which falls within the Shivaliks of northwest India. Input layers such as rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, slope length and steepness, cover management, and conservation practice factors were developed in ArcGIS. The R factor was obtained from the gridded rainfall data from IMD, the K factor from FAO soil map, the LS factor from DEM, and the C from LULC map. The district was divided into seven watersheds (WS-1 to WS-7) based on a map from the Soil and Land Use Survey of India. Based on average annual soil loss, watersheds were ranked with average soil loss being 15.43 t ha-1 yr-1 to a total of 2.1 million tonnes of total erosion. Very slight erosion was seen in nearly 80% of area, whereas, 7.15% areas faced erosion as severe or very severe. WS-2 had recorded highest amount of loss of soil 274,846.5 t ha-1 yr-1, thus first ranked for execution of Soil and Water Management (SWM). Thus, the present investigation forms a basis for the implementation of targeted SWM strategies to control soil erosion in the Rupnagar district which represent Kandi or dryland region of Punjab.
- Published
- 2025
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