IJFANS International Journal of Food and Nutritional Sciences

ISSN PRINT 2319 1775 Online 2320-7876

Assessment of Soil Loss based on Stehlik’s Method using GIS in Tamastirth Watershed, Dapoli Tahsil, Ratnagiri District, Maharashtra

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Ashok B. Divekar and Mithilesh N. Chavan

Abstract

Watersheds are natural geohydrologic units that are most appropriate for appraisal of available natural resources and subsequent planning and developmental initiative. In the present research work, an attempt has been made to estimate the soil loss in Tamastirth watershed, with the help of the GIS data integration and analysis. The Tamastirth watershed is located along the western coast of India in Ratnagiri District of Konkan region in Maharashtra. The Tamastirth Watershed is a mini-watershed covering a geographical area of 26.44 sq. km. The Stehlik‟s method has been used for the estimation of the annual rate of soil loss in the study area. The Tamastirth watershed has been divided into 1116 grid cells of 5 seconds by 5 seconds dimension. The values of the factors used in the Stehlik‟s soil loss equation have been calculated based on criteria presented in Zachar (1982). The values for each grid cell for each factor have been calculated based on the criteria tables and equations. The mean annual soil loss calculated in millimeters per year (m y-1) has been converted to meters per year. The mean annual soil loss has been converted to kg m-2 y-1 by multiplying the soil loss „X‟ (m y-1) by the bulk density of the soil (kg/m³). The average annual soil loss in the Tamastirth watershed has been estimated to be 11.27 mm y-1 (15.53 kg m-2 y-1).

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