Soil erosion mapping for land resources management in Karanji watershed of Yavatmal district, Maharashtra using remote sensing and GIS techniques

Understanding the relationship between land attributes and soil erosion processes is very important as the resource conservation and developmental programmes are being taken up increasingly on watershed basis. The Karanji watershed is predominantly under rainfed farming associated with soil erosion problems and low crop productivity. Spatial information related to elevation (DEM), physiography, slope and existing land use/land cover and soils has been derived through remote sensing, collateral data and field survey and used as inputs in Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) to compute soil loss in GIS. Physiographically, the area has been delineated into plateau, escarpment, isolated hillock, foot slopes, undulating land, alluvial plain and valley and encompasses very gently (1–3%) to moderately steeply (15–30%) sloping lands. The temporal satellite data of IRS-P6 LISS-III and LISS-IV was used to classify the present land use/land cover,which indicated that cultivated land is the dominant land utilization type with single crop (38.2%) and double crop (21.0%) followed by degraded forest (14.1%), moderately dense forest (13.7%), dense forest (5.6%) and wasteland with scrub (3.9%). Physiographic as unit wise analysis of soil loss indicated the erosion risk areas. The study identified about 3330 ha area constituting 16.4% of the watershed under extremely severe erosion. These areas are moderately and moderately steeply sloping escarpments and isolated hillocks with degraded forest and wasteland with scrub. Various soil erosion control measures (both agronomic and mechanical) and suitable interventions like afforestation, agroforestry, agri-horticulture have been suggested for sustainable development and management of land resources, soil moisture conservation, water resources development, improving the crop productivity and preservation of eco-diversity.