Disaster Advances Vol.

7 (2) February 2014

36

Assessment of soil erosion probability in
Kodaikanal, India using GIS and remote sensing
Bagyaraj M.
1
, Ramkumar T.
1
, Venkatramanan S.
2*
,

Chung S. Y.
2

and Gurugnanam B.
3
1. Depart ment of Eart h Sciences, Annamalai Universit y, Annamalai Nagar-608 002, Tamil Nadu, INDIA
2. Depart ment of Eart h Environment al Sciences, Pukyong Nat ional Universit y, 599-1, Daeyeon-dong Nam,
Busan - 608737, REPUBLIC of KOREA
3. Depart ment of Geology, Gandhi garm Rural Inst it ut e Deemed University, Gandhigarm-624 302, Tamil Nadu, INDIA
*venkat ramanansenapat hi@gmail.com

Abstract
Soil erosion hazard zone was demarcated with the
help of Remote sensing data. Geographical
Information System (GIS) has been integrated with the
weighted index overlay (WIO) methods for the
identification and delineation of soil erosion
susceptibility zones in the Kodai Hills. The
parameters considered for identifying the soil erosion
probability zone of factors that are considered to
influence the soil erosion are: soil series, land
use/land cover, normalized difference vegetation
index (NDVI), landform, drainage density, drainage
frequency, lineament density, slope and relative relief
generated using the resource sat (IRS P6 LISS IV MX)
data and survey of India (SOI) toposheets of scale
1:50,000 and integrated them with weight index
overlay (WIO) model based on GIS to identify the soil
erosion probability zone of the study area.

In the present analysis the area is divided into three
zones representing low (38.12%), moderate (50%)
and high (11.89%) erosion proneness. The high soil
erosion probability zone was observed in areas with
high terrain alteration, high relief and slopes with the
intensity and duration of heavy precipitation during
the monsoons.

Keywords: Soil erosion, WIO, Geographical Information
System, Remote Sensing, Kodaikanal.

Introduction
Soil erosion is a serious problem throughout the world due
to its adverse economic and eco-environmental impacts
such as losses in land resources and decreases in land
productivity, from erosion and shallow land sliding on
basin slopes to sediment transport and deposition in the
channel network. The management of mountain basins
requires reliable methods for the analysis of sediment
dynamics.
1,6,8,10,11,21,23,33,36
A detailed account of the
procedure is involved in assessing soil erosion in various
diverse environments along the management practices to
reduce the problem
17
. The major factors that are
responsible for soil erosion include climate, topography,
soil characteristics, vegetation cover and land-use practices.

Soil erosion and sediment transport studies were made in
the three experimental watersheds in the hilly mountains
part of west Serbia (Yogoslana). The sweater sheds are
characterized by similar natural features, the only
difference being the degree of forest cover. The result of
study shows that the degree of forest cover affects
significantly the type and intensity of erosion processes as
well as sediment transport. It was found that the lowest
intensity of erosion and lowest sediment transport recorded
in the watershed had more forest covers
18
. The over view of
soil erosion control measures adopted in Hungary followed
by a case study of the soil erosion process of a small
watershed in the northern sub-continent of Lake Balaton
has found only two per cent of the calculated soil loss
actually observed in the catchment
16,35
. The amount of
sediment eroded away from sites of road construction in
hilly areas is ten times greater than the amount derived
from agricultural land and about 200 times greater than
from grassy area and about 2000 times greater from the
forested area. This has distributed the stability of the hill
side, inflicting serious damage to the hydrologic system.
7


The Arim Gadh catchment near Missouri has found that
sediment yield from slopes vegetated with scrubs was 5 - 7
times greater than those with reserved forest
8
. Once the
perennial vegetation off ores are removed and brought
under cultivation, the slope plays an important role in
erosion. The soil wash in cultivated areas is estimated to be
6 10 cm per year and in tea gardens it was found to be 30-
100 cm per annum
5
. Deforestation is the dominant factor
causing rapid soil erosion
28
. The other factors, which have
accelerated soil erosion in the area, include high altitudinal
range, geology and heavy rainfall. Assessment of erosion
status of a watershed is an essential pre-requisite of
integrated watershed management. Due to the complexity
of the variables involved in erosion, it becomes difficult to
measure or predict the erosion in a precise manner.

The latest advances in remote sensing and geographical
information technologies have provided very useful
methods of surveying and identifying various aspects of
watershed terrain behavior and also the integrated
modelling approach utilizing the parameters controlling soil
erosion is the effective mean of practical assessment of soil
erosion hazard. Several studies carried out in different parts
of the world have demonstrated capability of GIS technique
for quantitatively assessing soil erosion hazard based on
various approaches and equations.
9,12,19,20,22,25,26,32,37,38


Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
37

To estimate the average annual soil loss from an area,
RUSLE is often used. To adopt the RUSLE, large sets of
data starting from rainfall, soil, slope, crop and land
management are needed in detail. In developing countries
all the necessary data are often not available or require
ample time, money and effort to prepare such data sets. In
the present study, an attempt has been made to assess the
spatial distribution of potential soil erosion zones and rate
of soil erosion at a of scale 1:50,000 covering Kodaikanal
area by an efficient, fast and simple methodology using the
remote sensing and GIS data integration and analysis,
despite the lack of direct observation data.

Study Area
General Setup: Study area (Fig.1) of Kodaikanal hills is
located in the Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu with an area
of 1039.46 km.
2
It is geographically located between 77
14 26 and 77 45 28 E longitudes and 10 6 25 and
10 26 54 N latitudes. In the survey of India toposheet, it
forms part of 58 F/7, 8, 11 and 12 on 1:50,000 scale. It is
part of the Western Ghats which is designated as one of the
eighteen biodiversity hotspots of the world. On a tourism
perspective, the region is widely hailed as the Princess of
Hill Stations owing to the popularity it gained during
British Raj. The climatic condition of the study area is
characterized by humid conditions. Relative humidity is
high during retreating NE monsoon season (October to mid
December). The mean temperature of Kodaikanal taluk is
15.93
0
C with a mean summer temperature of 17.29
0
C
(June, July and August) and mean winter (December,
January and February) temperature of 14.10
0
C. The
average annual rainfall is 1436.87 mm. The maximum
elevation is 2517mts located in the south west portion.

Geology: The Kodaikanal hills form one of the chief
charnockite massifs which are bluish grey and coarse
grained more or less of uniform type of charnockite
formation of older granulites and traversed at places by
pink granites. The geological sequences of the rock are
observed as mentioned below:

Recent and sub recent-Black humus soil, laterite and
lithomorgic clay.
Archean - Pegmatite, quartz veins and pink granite.
Feldspathic gneiss (leptynitictype), Charnockite
Pyroxene granulite, Calc-granulite.

Charnockite rocks in the Kodaikanal hills have been
intensely altered resulting in the formation of laterite and
lithomorgic clays. This is due to the intensive tropical
conditions of the area and extensive laterisation of the
parent rock. During heavy precipitation in rainy seasons,
the capping laterite and clay materials have been eroded to
down side thereby attributing to the denudation of the
plateau. In the Kodaikanal hill ranges, a brown colored
humus material is found overlaying the lateritic material.

Methodology: In the present study resource sat (IRS P6
LISS IV MX) sensor data of 7 March 2006 were collected
and registered to Survey of India (SOI) topographical
sheets at 1:50,000 scale in the ERDAS image analysis
system version 9.3. In the survey of India toposheet, it
forms part of 58 F/7, 8; 11 and 12 on 1:50,000 scales used
for the preparation of spatial databases and they are land
use/land cover, normalized difference vegetation index
(NDVI), landform, drainage density, drainage frequency,
lineament frequency and the topographic attributes of the
region such as slope and relative relief. Each category is
subdivided into different classes by its value or feature for
the identification of soil erosion probability zones
methodology flow chart (Fig. 2).

Drainage density and drainage frequency were classified
into different orders. In GIS, drainage channel segments
were ordered numerically as order number 1 from a
streams headwaters to a point downstream. The stream
segment that results from the joining of two first order
streams was assigned order 2. Two second order streams
formed a third order stream and so on. The sub basin area,
perimeter, cumulative length of streams and basin length
were measured in GIS and are expressed as A, P, L and Lb
respectively. Parameters such as ruggedness number (Rn),
drainage density, bifurcation ratio, stream frequency (Fu),
texture ratio, form factor (Rf), circulatory ratio (Rc),
elongation ratio (Re) and constant of channel maintenance
(C) were evaluated with established mathematical
equations.
34


Rainfall runoff erosive factor: Rainfall data were
obtained from the Bayan Lepas weather station belonging
to Malaysian Meteorological Services Department. The
monthly average rainfall data of 10 years (20022011) was
used to calculate the R factor as per formula
2
:
12
Rainfall factor = 4.17 * (Pi
2
/P) 152

(i=1)


where Pi is the monthly average rainfall (mm) for the
month i, P is the annual average rainfall (mm) and
represents the annual average R. When P and Pi values are
substituted from rainfall data in the above equation, the
resultant value of R can be obtained. R factor was obtained
from Kodai weather station and calculated using above
equation. For Kodaikanal it is 74.60 mm/ha. This constant
factor was used for the entire study area.

The rainfall data for the period of 2002 to 2011 were
collected in the Statistical Department wing (PWD), Govt.
of Tamil Nadu. The rainfall data ware assessed for all the
seasons. These results were taken into GIS platform to
prepare the spatial distribution maps. Winter, Summer,
Southwest and Northeast monsoon seasons spatial
distribution maps result reveal that 903.58 km
2
, 840.99
km
2
, 894.99 km
2
and 889.17 km
2
area fall in high rainfall
received shadow zone respectively. Last 10 years (1998 to
Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
38

2007) annual average rainfall spatial distribution map result
reveals that 883.05 km
2
areas fell under high rainfall
shadow zone with more than 766 mm rainfall. It shows the
annual average rainfall distribution is very high in the study
area. The high rainfall domain occupies 84.9 % of the study
area (Fig.3).

Soil characteristics of different landforms: The study
area is having six types of soil series (Soil Survey and land
use Organization) Cavaiparai-Samayanure, Shavadiparai-
Vylogam, Irugur-miscellaneous, Irugur-Palaviduthi, Irugur-
Vyogam and Pilamedu-Vylogam. The Chavadiparai-
Samayanure soil series moderate steep slopes are the main
causative factors for these soils. The Chavadiparai-
Vylogam soil series covered in a small area (0.30%)
includes steep slope, drainage density and stream frequency
as the influencing factors for the genesis of this soil. Irugur-
miscellaneous soil series having moderate slope, high
drainage density, are the main causative factors for these
soils. These soils occupied 5% of the study area.

Irugur-Palaviduthi covers a majority of the study area of
65.82% (Fig. 4). The high drainage density and steep slopes
are the main causative factors for these soils. These soils
are in association with structural hill areas. The Irugur-
Vylogam soils having steep to very steep slopes, very high
drainage density and stream frequency are the main
contributing factors for the development of Irugur-
Vylogam soils. The Pilamedu-Vylogam soil series covers
3.41% of the total geographical area. It may be seen that
the soil series Cavaiparai-Samayanure, Irugur-
miscellaneous and Pilamedu-Vylogam soil series is more
prone to erosion than any other unit.

Land use/land cover: The land use/land cover pattern of
the area was very important because Western Ghats are
designated as one of the eighteen biodiversity hotspots of
the world. As a biodiversity hotspot it has the variety of
endemic flora and fauna. Its richness of epiphytes, orchids
and thirteen varieties of shola forests are unique. Besides,
this area is prone to the erosion, a phenomenon of debris
flow associated with torrential rain falls during the
monsoons. In the present study, the standard methods of
visual interpretation of remote-sensing data were adopted
to demarcate the various zones of natural and manmade
patterns. The various land use/land cover classes delineated
to include Forest, Agriculture, Waste Land and Harvested
Land and built-up land water body (Fig. 5).


























































Fig. 1: Study area map
Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
39



Fig. 2: Flow chart of the present study

























Fig. 3: Annual Average Rainfall SDSS Map

Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
40




























Fig. 4: Classes of soil series map




























Fig. 5: Classes of land use/land cover map

Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
41

Landforms: The geographical features were interpreted
from the satellite imagery and the features and GIS
database was generated for dissected plateau, structural hill,
structural valley, valley fill and pediment. Dissected
plateaus occupied almost 24.84% of total geographic areas.
Structural hills have been identified in almost all the study
area and are delineated based on the image characteristics
viz. valley fills are delineated with the help of satellite
image. It is having more vegetation. The valley fills the
cover in small areas. The composite slopes are also
identified. From the ranking awarded above it may be seen
that the geomorphological unit Structural Hill and
Pediment is more prone to slides than any other unit
(Fig.6).

Drainage density and drainage frequency: Drainage
density is considered to be one of the important parameters
for assessing the soil erosion zone in an area. Since
drainage density is a useful index for understanding the
nature of the surface material and their permeability and
infiltration characteristics, drainage density has been used
in conjunction with other parameters such as slope
geomorphology, rock types, lineament density etc. Hill's
slope evolution in an area is controlled by the sediment
transport processes which change in response to the
evolving topography and by their interaction with stream
processes at the slope base.
29
In mountainous regions,
drainage density provides an indirect measure of
groundwater conditions which have an important role to
play in landslide and other erosion activities.
24,30,31

Drainage density is a measure of stream spacing and a
higher drainage density represents a relatively higher
number of streams per unit area and thus a rapid storm
response. It also represents conditions favorable for higher
erosion from the catchment.

The simplest way to calculate drainage density boon a
regional scale is to divide the study area into grid squares
of one sq.km each and to measure the total stream length in
each grid square and to group the derived data in drainage
density categories. The methodology stated above has been
used to obtain a drainage density map of the study area.
The values obtained range from 150 to 3,959 m/km
2
finally
classified into three classes of high (>3,000 m/km
2
),
moderate (2000 to 3000 m/km
2
) and low (<2000 m/km
2
)
density (Fig.7). The stream frequency is controlled by
various factors like climate, the amount of precipitation,
vegetation cover, permeability of mantle and bedrock. It is
also influenced by the relief of the terrain. In the present
study, the area has been divided into one sq.km grid and the
number of streams in one sq. km counted based on this.
The area has been divided into three groups in the stream
frequency map (Fig.8):

1) Low (< 7 / sq.km)
2) Medium (7 10 / sq.km)
3) High (> 10 / sq.km).

Lineament Density and Lineament Frequency: The
study of lineament density may help to identify the
weathered zones in an area which is very essential in the
studies relating to, soil erosion, landslides etc. The
lineament density map for the present study area was
prepared using lineament map prepared by interpretation of
satellite data. The lineament map was prepared on 1:50,000
scales overlaid by a 2cm grid sheet. The total length of the
lineament in each grid was noted down and the process was
repeated for all the grids covering the study area. By
carefully examining the values obtained, the data were
grouped into four classes as low (lineament density less
than 1000 m/sq. km, moderate (1000-1500m/sq. km.), high
(1500-2000 m/sq. km.) and very high (> 2000 m/sq. km,
Fig. 9). General trend shown by the lineaments present in
the study area are NNESSW and NESW. The lineament
frequency map was generated using the Spatial Analyst
extension of ArcGIS. The raster layer obtained was
reclassified into two classes on using the reclassification
tool.

Slope and relative relief: The slope map of the study area
was prepared by adopting the widely used Wentworths
average slope method. The slopes affect the velocity of
both surface and subsurface flow and hence soil water
content, soil formation, erosion potential and a large
number of important geomorphic processes. Digital
elevation model (DEM) is derived using contour
information from the topographical map for estimation of
slope in degrees. The identified slope category varies from
0
o
to >30
o
degree in the study area and are classified into
five classes like, 0
o
10
o
(gentle), 10
o
20
o
(moderate), 20

o
25
o
(high), 25
o
30
o
(very high) and >30
o
(steep)
(Fig.10).

Elevation is useful to classify the local relief and locate
points of maximum and minimum heights within terrains.
Relative relief portrays the difference in elevation at a
given point. The factor of safety decreases with the increase
in height. Thus, for two slopes having identical geo-
mechanical and geometrical parameters except for height,
the higher slope will be more susceptible to erosion and
landslide. Run-off is higher and infiltration is lower in areas
of steeper topography.

In addition, saturation of a slope reduces the shear
resistance of the regolith and increases the shear forces
through drag.
24,27,30
Survey of India provided base layers in
a digital format on 1:50000 scale. A DEM was prepared
using line contours of 20 meter interval. The elevation of
the area depicted in clearly shows that the Kodai hill rises
abruptly from the adjacent plains from about 300 m to 1000
m. in some parts of the hills such as abruptness continues
even up to 2500 m (Fig.11) The relative relief map thus
generated shows a value ranging between 0 and 2500
m/km
2
and reclassified into class 1 (<300 m/km
2
); class 2
(300500 m/km2); class 3 (>500 m/km
2
).

Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
42

Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI): NDVI
calculated from the visible and near-infrared light reflected
by vegetation and the healthy vegetation absorbs most of
the visible light that hits it and reflects a large portion of the
near-infrared light. Unhealthy or sparse vegetation reflects
more visible light and less near-infrared light. Calculations
of NDVI for a given pixel always result in number that
ranges from minus one (1) to plus one (+1); however, no
green leaves give a value close to zero. A zero means no
vegetation and close to +1 (0.80.9) indicates the highest
possible density of green leaves. The IRS P6 LISS 3
multispectral image was used with the vegetation index
function available in the ERDAS Imagine 9.2 software to
derive the NDVI image. To avoid the negative values and
for easy handling of digital data, NDVI values obtained for
IRSP6 L3 data (23.5 m spatial resolution) were rescaled
as shown in eq. 1:

NDVI = [(Band 4-Band 3/Band 4 + Band 3) + 1] (1)

Thus produced rescaled NDVI map shows a range of
values between 0.63 and 1.75 in which the low values are
characteristics of cleared areas and zones with sparse
vegetations and the higher values indicate densely covered
areas.

Results and Discussion
Delineation of soil erosion probability zonesweighted
index overlay method (WOI): The ranking of themes
done in an unbiased manner is based on the frequency of
occurrence of soil erosion under a particular theme. Each
thematic map such as land use/land cover, land form,
drainage density, drainage frequency, lineament frequency,
slope and relative relief provides certain clues for the
preparation of soil erosion probability zones. Thus the
major processes involved are theme weightage fixing and
their further analysis in GIS platform. The weightages of
individual themes and feature score were fixed and added
to the layers by considering their role in the soil erosion.
GIS modelling technique of index overlay method was used
to produce soil erosion map. In this modelling method the
map classes occurring in each input map are assigned by
different scores in addition to the maps themselves
receiving weights. The average score is then defined by:

S = Sij Wi / Wi
3


where S is the weight score of an area object (polygon,
pixel), Wi is the weight for the its input map and Sij is the
rating score of the class map.

The process involves raster overlay analysis and is known
as weighted index overlay (WIO) of several methods
available for determining interclass/inter-map dependency,
a probability weighted approach has been adopted that
allows a linear combination of probability weights of each
thematic map (Wt). Different categories of derived
thematic maps have been assigned scores (Wf), depending
upon their role in making the terrain susceptible to soil
erosion.
37
The maximum value is given to the feature with
highest susceptibility and the minimum being to the lowest
susceptible feature (Table 1).

The procedure of weighted linear combination dominates in
raster-based GIS software systems. Spatial analyst
extension of ArcGIS 9.3 was used for converting the
features to raster and also for final analysis. Then using
raster calculator, all the themes are added and the soil
erosion prone area map is prepared. In this method, the
total weights of the final integrated map were derived as
sum or product of the weights assigned to the different
layers according to their susceptibility.

Assessment of annual soil erosion rateE30 model
using NDVI and slope: The proposed method provides a
greater flexibility to estimating the soil erosion rate for any
location within the study area because by this method the
soil erosion rate for each of the pixels could be estimated
individually.
13-15
The soil erosion model given in eq. 2 was
used to estimate the annual rate of soil erosion in the area
under investigation. This model is mainly governed by
slope gradient and vegetation index and the annual soil
erosion rate (E) is defined as:

E = E
30
(S/S
30
)
0.9
(2)

where S = gradient of the point under consideration, S
30
=
tan (30) and E
30
=rate of soil erosion at 30 slope and
defined as given in eq. 3:

E
30
= Exp [(Log 0.562 Log 22.25/NDVImax NDVImin)
* (NDVI NDVImin) + Log 2.25] (3)

The maximum and minimum (average) rate of soil erosion
at 30 slope in the study areas collected from the field
stations were 22.25 mm/year and 0.562 mm/year in the
study area as shown in eq. 3. By calculating the E
30
value
for each pixel using eq. 3, soil erosion from each pixel with
a different slope was calculated using eq. 2. A raster map of
slope gradient was prepared with the pixel size of 20 m,
using a DEM to provide the slope information for eq. 2.
The final map thus produced has given a continuous raster
with values varying from pixel to pixel indicating the soil
erosion rate in the study area. Thus by using the GIS-based
proposed methods, soil erosion probability zones and soil
erosion rate map were prepared.

Finally, the erosion probability zone assessment of the
Kodaikanal area was carried out using seven different
parameters which are generally accepted as soil erosion
contributing factors and widely used in soil erosion
probability zones assessment studies in the literature. These
are soil series, land use/ land cover, landform, drainage
density, drainage frequency, lineament density, slope and
relative relief slope. The integrated final map has generated
a range of values from 1662 which is reclassified into
Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
43

three zones (Fig.12) based on the quintile classification
method available in the spatial analyst option.






































Fig. 6: Classes of landform map

























Fig. 7: Classes of drainage density map

Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
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Fig. 8: Classes of drainage frequency map




























Fig. 9: Classes of lineament density map


Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
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Fig. 10: Classes of slope map




























Fig. 11: Classes of relative relief map


Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
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Table 1
Theme and feature class weights of Kodaikanal

Theme
Theme weight
(Wt)
Feature class
Feature class weight
(Wf)
Rainfall 20
High Rainfall
Medium Rainfall
10
7
Soil series



15
Pilamedu + Vylogam (Clay loam) 3
Chavadiparai + Vylogam (Sand) 7
Chavadiparai + Somayyanur (Sandy
clay)
3
Irugur + Miscellaneous (Sandy loam) 10
Irugur + Palaviduthi (Sandy loam) 10
Irugur + Vylogam (Sandy loam) 10
Land use/land
cover



15

Forest 1
Agriculture 7
Waste Land 9
Built-up 2
Harvested Land 7
Water bodies 0
Landform


12
Dissected plateau 5
Pediment 8
Structural hill 7
Structural valley 10
Valley Fill 10
Drainage density

10

<2000 m/km
2
3
2000 to 3000 m/km
2
4
>3,000 m/km
2
10
Drainage frequency

15
< 7 / sq.km 2
7 10 / sq.km 5
> 10 / sq.km 10
Lineament Density

10
1000-1500 m / sq. km 3
1500-2000 m / sq. km 5
>2000 m / sq. km. 10
Slope


20
0
0
10
0
0
10 - 20
0
3
20 - 25
0
7
25 30
0
10
>30
0
10
Relative relief


18
300 m 0
< 300 5
300 - 500 m 8
> 500 m 10
Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
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Fig. 12: Soil erosion zone map (In figure Km2 should be Km
2
)

In quintile classification, the range of possible values is
divided into unequal-sized intervals so that the number of
values is the same in each class. Classes at the extremes
and middle have the same number of values. Because the
intervals are generally wider at the extremes, this option is
useful to highlight changes in the middle values of the
distribution.

The soil erosion probability of the area is classified as high,
moderate, and poor. The high erosion probability zones
occupy 38.12% of the total area; moderate and low soil
erosion prone zones occupy 50% and 11.89% of the study
area respectively. After generating the soil erosion
probability zones, it is very important to identify the type of
individual feature classes which play a vital role in the
making the area vulnerable to soil erosion. In the present
analysis it was found that land use/land cover types such as
cleared areas, crop land and rubber plantations, particularly
in replanting time present in the slide slope plateau, highly
elevated areas with high slope and high drainage density
make the terrain more prone to soil erosion. The rate
severity and nature of the erosion will be more
unpredictable at the time of monsoon seasons.

A quantitative assessment of average annual soil loss on
grid basis was made using a new methodology known as
WIO and NDVI slope of the area. Lack and non-
availability of data needed to process the RUSLE method
necessitated the application of the proposed methodology
in the study area to assess the spatial distribution of rate of
soil erosion in the studied sub watershed. The use of remote
sensing data and digital elevation model in GIS and
ERDAS enabled the determination of the spatial
distribution of the parameters needed for the analysis.

The overall estimated soil erosion rate in the study area was
varying from 0.04 mm year
1
to 61.80 mm year
1
with an
average of 30.92 mm year
1
. The spatial patterns of soil
erosion rate were overlaid with soil erosion probability map
of the area to cross validate the accuracy of both the maps
and it was observed that areas with high soil erosion rate
and high erosion probability zones were showing similar
spatial domains and patterns. The result of cross validation
of both maps indicates the accurate choice of parameters
and methodology for the present study.

Conclusion
The study area is characterized by undulating topography
dominated by high-altitude hills with an upland plateau
flanked by steep slopes. Major portion of the area is
covered with cultivated land followed by forest land. The
implementation of WIO and E
30
method enables to classify
the area into different zones based on probability of soil
erosion and the rate of soil erosion in each pixel is
Disaster Advances Vol. 7 (2) February 2014
48

ultimately helpful to derive suitable protection measures.
The implementation of WIO and NDVI

method enables to
classify the area into different zones on the basis of
probability of soil erosion and the rate of soil erosion in
each pixel is ultimately helpful to derive suitable protection
measures.

The maximum rate of soil erosion is estimated to be 61.80
mm year
1
and this corresponds to areas with high soil
erosion probability (38.12% of the total area). The
generated soil erosion probability image, predicted amount
of soil erosion rate and its spatial distribution can provide a
basis for comprehensive and sustainable land management
for the study area. Spatial relationships between erosion
rate and elevation indicate that severe and extreme soil
erosion is characteristic of plateau margins and highly
undulating hills with varying terrain alteration where no
conservation practices exist. Therefore, these areas,
especially the extreme and severe erosion zones, need
immediate attention from soil conservation point of view.

Acknowledgement
We express our sincere thanks to University Grant
Commission (UGC), Government of India for extending
the financial support to carry out this work.

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(Received 15
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2013)