Mathematical Model for Flow And Sediment Yield Estimation on Tel River Basin of India

Abstract

Soil erosion is a slow and continuous process and one of the prominent problems across the world leading to many serious problems like loss of soil fertility, loss of soil structure, poor internal drainage, sedimentation deposits etc. In this study remote sensing and GIS based methods have been applied for the determination of soil erosion and sediment yield. Tel River basin which is the second largest tributary of the river Mahanadi laying between latitude 19° 15' 32.4"N and, 20° 45' 0"N and longitude 82° 3' 36"E and 84° 18' 18"E chosen for the present study. The catchment was discretized into approximately homogeneous sub-areas (grid cells) to overcome the catchment heterogeneity. The gross soil erosion in each cell was computed using Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). Various parameters for USLE was determined as a function of land topography, soil texture, land use/land cover, rainfall erosivity and crop management practice in the watershed. The gross soil erosion was computed by overlaying all the parameter maps of USLE in ArcGIS and compared with the observed sediment yield at the outlet. Different erosion prone areas of the study basins were identified so that conservation practices can be implemented on those areas to minimize erosion