HOME JOURNALS CONTACT

Asian Journal of Applied Sciences

Year: 2019 | Volume: 12 | Issue: 2 | Page No.: 61-70
DOI: 10.3923/ajaps.2019.61.70
GIS-Based MCDA Model to Assess Erosion Sensitivity in Gumara watershed, Blue Nile, Basin Ethiopia
Afera Halefom , Asirat Teshome and Ermias Sisay

Abstract: Background and Objectives: Soil erosion has become one of the main environmental problems in internationally, particularly in Ethiopia, where the topography is undulating and population pressure is high, steeplands are cultivated which is accelerating erosive in the study area. Soil and water conservation is critically required in these areas. The main objective of this study was to identify the most vulnerable areas to soil erosion in Gumara watershed, Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia by using the geographic information system based decision support system use that of multi-criteria evaluation (MCE). Materials and Methods: weighted overlay was used to combine a set of factors (land use, soil, slope, altitude and TWI) to make a decision according to the stated objective. Raster based pairwise comparison method considering five soil erosion-driving parameters have been done in Arc GIS and ERDAS 2014 environments. The MCE is used to quantify the raster based qualitative spatial erosion vulnerable model produced through pairwise comparison. Results: Raster based spatial model reveals that out of total watershed area, 6.45 km2 (0.53%), 119.5 km2 (9.73%), 1024.45 km2 (83.45%), 75.3 km2 (6.14%) and 1.92 km2 (0.16%) areas are very high, high, medium, low and very low prone to soil erosion, respectively. Conclusion: It would be conclude that this research could help decision-makers and policy-makers to apply soil and water conservation techniques to minimize soil erosion in the study areas.

Fulltext PDF Fulltext HTML

How to cite this article
Afera Halefom, Asirat Teshome and Ermias Sisay, 2019. GIS-Based MCDA Model to Assess Erosion Sensitivity in Gumara watershed, Blue Nile, Basin Ethiopia. Asian Journal of Applied Sciences, 12: 61-70.

© Science Alert. All Rights Reserved