Mapping of soil erosion-prone sub-watersheds through drainage morphometric analysis and weighted sum approach: a case st
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Mapping of soil erosion‑prone sub‑watersheds through drainage morphometric analysis and weighted sum approach: a case study of the Kulfo River basin, Rift valley, Arba Minch, Southern Ethiopia Muralitharan Jothimani1 · Abel Abebe2 · Zerihun Dawit1 Received: 5 February 2020 / Accepted: 21 May 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract In the present study, soil erosion prioritization of sub-watersheds of the Kulfo River basin was conducted by adopting a drainage morphometric analysis along with a statistical correlation matrix-based weighted sum approach. The drainage network extracted and sub-watershed boundaries were demarcated through GIS techniques using advanced space-borne thermal emission and reflection–digital elevation model (ASTER–DEM). The Kulfo River basin was separated into six sub-watersheds (SW-1 to SW-6), and different morphometric criteria were calculated using the standard formula. And, morphometric parameters like drainage frequency, bifurcation ratio, drainage density, form factor, circulatory ratio, drainage texture, elongation ratio, compact coefficient, and length of overland flow have been considered for sub-watershed prioritization. Based on the results, the Kulfo River basin’s sub-watersheds were categorized into five priority classes: very low, low, medium, high, and very high. The results illustrate the sub-watersheds (SW-1, SW-2, SW-3, and SW-6) that approximately 65% of the Kulfo River basin’s total area fall under the very high, high, and medium soil erosion-prone areas, respectively. Therefore, the above-mentioned four sub-watersheds can be a value for the consideration of the soil protection plan. The outcomes derived from this study will be valuable information for several partners like agriculturists, surface and groundwater wealth administrators, and decision-makers for improving the soil management process. The current research shows that ASTER–DEM data, GIS approach, and a statistical correlation matrix-based weighted sum approach are vibrant tools for watershed prioritization in data-scarce regions. Keywords Drainage morphometry · Statistical correlation analysis · Watershed prioritization · Kulfo River basin · Rift valley · Ethiopia
Introduction Soil and water are the most important natural resources on earth. Unsustainable usage of these vital resources, rapid population growth, overgrazing, and fast urbanization have caused in speeded soil erosion in the world, particularly in emerging countries like Ethiopia, as stated by Hurni (1993), Nyssen et al. (2004), Tamene and Vlek (2006), Zemenu and * Muralitharan Jothimani [email protected] 1
Department of Geology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
Department of Geology, College of Natural Sciences, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia
2
Minale (2014). According to Young (1998), El-Swaify and Hurni (1996), Ethiopia is Africa’s most severe soil erosionprone and soil loss country. FAO (1986) and Tamene and Vlek (2006) estimat
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