Application of Universal Soil Loss Equation in Estimation of Sediment Yield(Case study: Upper Mahanadi Catchment, India)

Abstract

Soil erosion in the upstream river basins, its transport and deposition play a major role in understanding many activities of global significance. In recent activities of man like interfering with nature, like changing of river course by construction of dams, weirs and barrages have affected the sediment yield. At first the watershed is generated in Arc GIs on spatial data of upper Mahanadi basin by using Raijm as controlling station. Spatial data from upstream of Mahanadi catchment are analyzed for computation of sediment yield. The factor responsible for this variation are also analyzed. Universal Soil Loss Equation is used for computation of sediment yield in Raijm gauging station present in Raipur district of Chhattisgarh. Analysis of data indicated that the distribution of rainfall and topographical characteristics are the major factors influencing the variation of sediment flux in upper Mahanadi Basin. Data collected from India Wris are used for computation of observed sediment yield. The maximum erosion found per hector is less than 47 tons per year. The location for maximum erosion prone area was also found out. It was observed that sediment yield was maximum in monsoon. The maximum error obtained between observed and computed sediment yield is less than 30%.