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Soil erosion modeling of a Himalayan watershed using RS and GIS

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Abstract

Employing the remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS), an assessment of sediment yield from Dikrong river basin of Arunachal Pradesh (India) has been presented in this paper. For prediction of soil erosion, the Morgan-Morgan and Finney (MMF) model and the universal soil loss equation (USLE) have been utilized at a spatial grid scale of 100 m × 100 m, an operational unit. The average annual soil loss from the Dikrong river basin is estimated as 75.66 and 57.06 t ha−1 year−1 using MMF and USLE models, respectively. The watershed area falling under the identified very high, severe, and very severe zones of soil erosion need immediate attention for soil conservation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the technical help provided by scientists, Regional Remote Sensing Service Center, Kharagpur in carrying out this study. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous referees for useful suggestions, which led to a substantially improved manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Water Resource Development and Management, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, 247 667, India

    Ashish Pandey & S. K. Mishra

  2. Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur, 721 302, India

    Abhisekh Mathur & B. C. Mal

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  1. Ashish Pandey
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  2. Abhisekh Mathur
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  3. S. K. Mishra
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  4. B. C. Mal
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Correspondence to Ashish Pandey.

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Pandey, A., Mathur, A., Mishra, S.K. et al. Soil erosion modeling of a Himalayan watershed using RS and GIS. Environ Earth Sci 59, 399–410 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-009-0038-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-009-0038-0

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