Microgeomorphometric Analysis And Prioritization of Soil Erosion Vulnerable Sub-watersheds by Using Remote Sensing and GIS for Zuari River Basin, Goa, India

Watershed prioritization for the identification of susceptible sub-basins for soil erosion in the Zuari river basin is carried out by using quantitative micro-geomorphometric analysis. The basin is divided into 10 sub-watersheds along with the stream order up to 7th order in Arc GIS software with the help of DEM data. Linear, areal, and relief parameters have been evaluated using Remote Sensing data and GIS techniques. Each parameter is examined independently as an indicator and appropriate rankings have been assigned by considering its role in soil erosion. Compound parameter values are calculated for all the sub-watersheds and the lowest compound value is allotted for the highest priority. Five priority levels are identified for the categorization of sub-watersheds, such as low, very low, moderate, high, and very high for conservation and planning of soil resource management. Three sub-watersheds scored very low compound value and hence are high priority basins which indicate the susceptible areas of intense soil erosion and need immediate action plans.