Prioritization of sub-watersheds for soil conservation management using morphometric, biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics: a fuzzy AHP approach

In this study, sub-watersheds of Manjira River basin in India is assessed for necessity of soil conservation studies by incorporating morphometric, biophysical and socioeconomic parameters using ArcGIS and Generalised Watershed Loading Function (GWLF) model. Morphometric parameters include watershed aspect, linear aspect, shape aspect and landscape aspect. The biophysical parameters considered are vegetation change, erosion and sediment loadings. The socioeconomic parameters considered are population density, literacy rate and agriculture worker density. The sub-basins were prioritized applying the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) into five priority classes, namely, “Very High”, “High”, “Medium”, “Low” and “Very Low”, covering approximately 36.4%, 15.5%, 24.4%, 11.39% and 11.28% of the surveyed area. An area of 2027.629 km² was found to be in the very high risk priority class with respect to soil conservation management to be applied in the respective sub-basins.