Research Article Open Access

WATERSHED CHARACHTERIZATION AND PRIORITIZATION OF TULASI SUBWATERSHED: A GEOSPATIAL APPROACH

Abstract

It is proficiently important to conserve the limited and precarious natural resources vis land, water and soil which should be categorically studied at watershed level. Due to improper land, soil and water management practices, land and water resources getting degraded and eroded, water getting polluted. In this regard present study is profoundly concerned to characterization and prioritization of Tulasi sub watershed which is small tributary of Bhogavati River in mega Panchganga river basin of Kolhapur district, Maharashtra. The prioritization of this small watershed has been carried out on the basis of morphometric analysis for land reclamation and soil erosion prevention. Database has been prepared in ArcGIS 9.3 desktop application, ARCSWAT extension tool for sub-watershed demarcation and other analysis carried out for certain significant areal, linear morphometric parameters vis stream length, stream frequency, bifurcation ratio, Length of overland flow, perimeter of basin, drainage density etc. have been assessed. Cartosat data used for preparation DEM and delineation of watershed. Above said parameters obtained by using Arc Gis ver.9.3 software and appropriate weightage assigned to them in order to assess the priority of sub watershed. The result reveals that, sub-basin TB-2, TB-3 and TB-4 has comes under the high risk for soil erosion and need to give a high priority for land conservation practices. These studies are significant for soil erosion prevention and surface rainwater harvesting.

V.S. Pawar-Patil , Sagar P. Mali

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