Land use/land cover analysis based prioritization of micro watersheds of Jhelum basin, North Western Himalayas using Geospatial Techniques

Soil erosion is the most devastating hazard which affects land qualities and water resources. An attempt to assess the erosion hazard and prioritization of watersheds for treatment would aid in better planning in combating this menace. Watershed prioritization is the ranking of different micro-watersheds of the catchment according to the order in which they have to be taken for treatment and soil conservation measures. Present study is an attempt to prioritize the micro-watersheds of Chandanwari watershed representing western Himalayas based on land use/land cover to assess soil erosion susceptibility using geographical information system (GIS). Images were classified into categories using supervised classification by maximum likelihood algorithm. Seven such LULC classes were identified, viz., agriculture, wasteland, impervious surface, forest, pasture, shrub and snow. Areas under perennial water (alpine lakes and stream) were also classified. Results of prioritization of micro-watersheds based on Land use/Land cover analysis show that micro-watersheds CMW6, CMW7 and CMW8 belong to very severe erosion class; while CMW1, CMW3 and CMW5 cover under severe erosion class and are more susceptible to soil erosion and need adequate management and planning to mitigate the problem of environmental degradation.