Study on the Influence of Soil and Water Conservation Treatments on Soil Loss and Land Use Land Cover Change Detection using GIS Mapping in Microwatershed Area

Watershed is a natural hydrologic entity. Watershed management is the process to sustain and enhance watershed functions. Microwatershed is the smallest hydrologic unit ranges between 100–1000 hectares and it is generally governed by viability and working feasibility of implementation of various development programmes. Land irrigability and capability classification for micro level watershed planning are needed so that the farmers can use better parcels for intensive cultivation with proper conservation measures and soil improving practices (P.D.Aher et al.). The main objective of this study is to analyse various factors that influencing the runoff and soil loss, detection on land use/land cover extents by using GIS tool in the rainfed, treated microwatersheds. The microwatershed area with coding 4B3B3r3 in Santhanapalli village, Krishnagiri district in Tamilnadu, India with an aerial extent of 4.4424 km² and the Silt Monitoring Station (SMS) at Bevanatham, Krishnagiri District of Tamilnadu, India have been considered in this study. Using GIS technologies microwatershed level database mapping has been developed and land use/land cover change detection in during the years 2005, 2010, 2014 have been mapped. Land cover change detection offers watershed planners a valuable tool for evaluating the land cover rehabilitation strategies in minimizing runoff and sediment yield during rainfall events in watershed ecosystems. Determination of Runoff, sediment rate and soil loss have been computed in the treated microwatershed areas.