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<p>Effective soil erosion management in fragile mountainous watersheds requires an integrated understanding of physical and land surface processes that drive landscape degradation. This study investigates the spatiotemporal land use land cover (LULC) changes and integrates them with morphometric analysis to prioritize sub-watersheds of the Gaudi River watershed, located in the Lesser Himalaya, Uttarakhand, for soil erosion risk. Using geographic information system (GIS) techniques and ALOS PALSAR (Advanced Land Observing Satellite-Phased Array-Type L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data, key morphometric parameters linear, areal, and relief were extracted. Simultaneously, LULC maps for 1995, 2003, 2015, and 2024 were generated using Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery, followed by change detection analysis to assess decadal transformations through ERDAS IMAGINE-2023. Results reveal a substantial increase in settlement areas (from 4.6% in 1995 to 11.3% in 2024), along with declines in open forest cover (from 28.4 to 18.7%) and agricultural land, indicating intensifying anthropogenic pressure and degradation trends. Sub-watersheds were ranked separately based on morphometric and LULC indicators using compound and composite index methods, and a final integrated prioritization was achieved by averaging these ranks. The analysis identified sub-watersheds 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, and 13 as highly vulnerable to soil erosion due to poor land cover conditions and unfavorable morphometric features. This integrated, data-driven prioritization framework offers a strategic tool for targeted soil conservation, sustainable land management, and erosion control in the fragile Himalayan watershed.</p>

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Integrated morphometric and LULC change-based soil erosion risk prioritization in the Gaudi River sub-watersheds, Lesser Himalaya

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月13日

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  • Biswajit Das,
  • Sumit Sen,
  • Shivendra Narayan Singh

摘要

Effective soil erosion management in fragile mountainous watersheds requires an integrated understanding of physical and land surface processes that drive landscape degradation. This study investigates the spatiotemporal land use land cover (LULC) changes and integrates them with morphometric analysis to prioritize sub-watersheds of the Gaudi River watershed, located in the Lesser Himalaya, Uttarakhand, for soil erosion risk. Using geographic information system (GIS) techniques and ALOS PALSAR (Advanced Land Observing Satellite-Phased Array-Type L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data, key morphometric parameters linear, areal, and relief were extracted. Simultaneously, LULC maps for 1995, 2003, 2015, and 2024 were generated using Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery, followed by change detection analysis to assess decadal transformations through ERDAS IMAGINE-2023. Results reveal a substantial increase in settlement areas (from 4.6% in 1995 to 11.3% in 2024), along with declines in open forest cover (from 28.4 to 18.7%) and agricultural land, indicating intensifying anthropogenic pressure and degradation trends. Sub-watersheds were ranked separately based on morphometric and LULC indicators using compound and composite index methods, and a final integrated prioritization was achieved by averaging these ranks. The analysis identified sub-watersheds 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, and 13 as highly vulnerable to soil erosion due to poor land cover conditions and unfavorable morphometric features. This integrated, data-driven prioritization framework offers a strategic tool for targeted soil conservation, sustainable land management, and erosion control in the fragile Himalayan watershed.