Application of GIS for soil erosion modeling in Bina River Basin

Abstract

Soil erosion is a major environmental problem that threatens the sustainability and productivity of agricultural areas. Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), originally developed by the USDA for agricultural lands and then used throughout the world. With the advance of Remote Sensing technique it becomes possible to measure hydrologic parameters on spatial scales while Geographic Information System integrates the spatial analytical functionality for spatially distributed data. This study was performed in the Bina River Basin having outlet at dam side. USLE model and ILWIS 3.0 GIS has been used for determining the quantity of soil erosion. ILWIS 3.0 GIS package has been used as the core of the spatial database and analysis. Results obtained from USLE model has been compared with existing empirical equation namely Joglekar's Curve developed for Central India and Khosla's method. It is observed that the mean annual soil loss estimated by using USLE method has been found to be 12.63 tons ha-1 year-14 for the Bina river watershed.