Estimation of Soil Erosion using Remote Sensing and GIS and Prioritization of Catchments

Soil erosion is one of the most critical environmental hazards of recent times. A large area suffers from soil erosion, which in turn, reduces productivity. Methods such as the Universal Soil Loss Equation or Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation are widely used for the estimation of soil erosion from catchment areas. The paper deals with the estimation of soil erosion using Universal Soil Loss Equation in a GIS environment and prioritization of catchments on that basis. Upper Kangsabati catchment in West Bengal, India was taken as the study area. Satellite Images of IRS‐P6 LISS‐III have been georeferenced with respect to SOI toposheets(1:50,000 scale). The drainage network and the catchment have been identified from the mosaiced toposheet and updated from satellite imagery. Landuse, soil and slope maps were prepared from Survey of India maps and NBSS & LUP maps and integrated into GIS database. Soil erosion of each of the subcatchment was estimated from the integrated map. The subcatchments were prioritized based on the estimation of erosion. From the study it can be inferred that soil erosion estimation using Remote Sensing and GIS technique can be effectively used for prioritization of catchments and this helps in the way the catchments can be taken for treatment for conservation measures.