Combination of morphometric parameters and land cover for assessment of soil erosion susceptibility using COPRAS model in lavasanat watershed

Soil erosion is one of the major environmental problems worldwide. Morphometric and landcover  analysis provides a platform for quick and efficient watershed management In the present study, morphometric parameters have been coupled with land cover classes to assess soil erosion susceptibility of sub-watersheds of  lavasanat watershed. The data used in this study included Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data, with 30 m spatial resolution for drainage generation; and Landsat8  (OLI/TIRS) data with 30 m spatial resolution (band 1 to 11 expect band 3) to generate land cover information of the study area. we estimated 15 morphometric parameters using ASTER DEM  with Arc Hydro package. At first, for proper determination of flow direction and flow accumulation, DEM sinks identified and filled. We used a critical threshold 100 for defining streams. Strahler’s scheme for stream ordering has been used.The sub-watershed erosion prioritization by using morphometric parameters and COPRAS method showed that sub-watersheds 12, 2 and 1 have the highest sensitivity to erosion with the lowest scores (0.098, 0.095, 0.088). In order to prioritize sub-watersheds based on surface coverage, the percentage of each surface coverage class in each sub-watershed was calculated. Based on the results of sub-watershed prioritization based on surface coverage, sub-watersheds3, 2 and 1 with the lowest scores (0.234, 0.221, and 0.164) have the most sensitivity to soil erosion and must be taken up for implementation of soil and water conservation measures.