Evaluating the soil erosion by RUSLE model using remote sensing and GIS: A case study of Dwarakeshwar-Rupnarayan basin, West Bengal, India.

A Serious problem arising from agricultural intensification, land depletion, and other anthropogenic activities is soil erosion. In planning and restoration work in a watershed or basin, the evaluation of soil erosion is useful. Under a broad variety of conditions, modelling may provide a quantitative and reliable approach to estimating soil erosion and sediment yield. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) integrated with the Geographical Information System (GIS) has been used in the current study to estimate soil loss in the Dwarakeshwar-rupnarayan basin in the south-western part of West Bengal, India, to estimate the soil loss. The Dwarakeshwar-rupnarayan basin is a sub-humid plateau zoned up to the gauging station with a drainage area of 10613 km2. The parameters of the RUSLE model were calculated, and the erosion probability zones were determined using GIS. The results indicate that during the water year 2018-2020, the projected cumulative annual potential soil loss of about 291 t/h/yr is comparable with the observed sediment of 163 t/h/yr. The weighted overlay index method has been used to obtain the probability zone map, suggesting that the main portion of the study area is in a low probability zone, and only a small portion is in a high and very high probability zone. Sediment yield is calculated with the help of Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR), and it is useful to determine the amount of sediment inflow into a river system. The average annual SY of the basin area is 20–163-ton h−1 yr-1. The findings would help to introduce soil management and conservation practices in the Dwarakeshwar-rupnarayan-Haldi basin to mitigate soil erosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]