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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XXXIX-B8, 2012 
XXII ISPRS Congress, 25 August — 01 September 2012, Melbourne, Australia 
SEDIMENT YIELD ESTIMATION AND PRIORITIZATION OF WATERSHED USING 
REMOTE SENSING AND GIS 
Sreenivasulu Vemu, Udaya Bhaskar Pinnamaneni 
Department of Civil Engineering, INT University, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India-533003 
vemusree @ gmail.com 
Commission VIII/8: Land 
KEYWORDS: Soil Erosion, USLE, Sediment yield, GIS, Remote sensing. 
ABSTRACT: 
Soil erosion is the greatest destroyer of land resources in Indravati catchment. It carries the highest amount of sediment compared to 
other catchment in India. This catchment spreading an area of 41,285 square km is drained by river Indravati, which is one of the 
northern tributaries of the river Godavari in its lower reach. In the present study, USLE is used to estimate sediment yield at the 
outlet of river Indravati catchment. Both magnitude and spatial distribution of potential soil erosion in the catchment is determined. 
From the model output predictions, it is found that average erosion rate predicted is 18.00 tons/ha/year and sediment yield at the out 
let of the catchment is 22.31 Million tons per year. The predicted sediment yield verified with the observed data. The Indravathi 
basin is divided into 424 sub-watersheds and prioritization of all 424 sub-watersheds is carried out according to soil loss intensity for 
soil conservation purpose. Generated soil loss map will be useful to soil conservationist and decision makers for watershed 
management. Overall 19.71 % of the area is undergoing high erosion rates which are a major contributor to the sediment yield 
(78.04 %) in the catchment. This area represents high-priority area for management in order to reduce soil losses, which are mostly 
found in upstream of the catchment. It is indicated that the areas of high soil erosion can be accounted for in terms of steep unstable 
terrain, and the occurrence of highly erodible soils and low vegetation cover. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Land degradation due to water erosion and deterioration of 
water quality by point source and non-point source are some of 
the main problems in most of the watersheds in India. In 
addition to losses of soil, many other problems are created by 
soil erosion: siltation of reservoirs, canals and rivers; 
deposition of unfertile material on cultivated lands; harmful 
effects on water-supply, fishing, power generation; and 
destruction of fertile agricultural land. According to Ministry of 
Irrigation in India, as much as 175 Mha ie. 53 % of 
geographical area is subjected to serious environmental 
degradation. Nearly 60 % of the cultural area is suffering from 
the effects of erosion, taking the toll of the land at the rate of 5 
to 7 Mha each year (Balakrishna, 1986). Study on global soil 
loss has indicated that soil loss rate in the U.S. is 16 t/ha/yr, in 
Europe it ranges between 10 — 20 t/ha/yr, while in Asia, Africa 
and South America, between 20 and 40 t/ha/yr (Pimentel et. al., 
1993). 
In assessing soil erosion, researchers always confront with the 
problem of selecting the appropriate model to use in a given 
area (Meijerink and Lieshout 1996). It is always important to 
adopt a suitable model that can be applied to the critical 
conditions of an area (Chisci and Morgan 1988). Some models 
are area-specific and may not perform well in other areas, since 
they are designed with a specific application in mind (Shrestha 
2000). Therefore, selection of a proper model suitable for an 
area should be the first step in erosion modeling. Numerous soil 
erosion models have been developed over the past 50 years, 
globally. All the erosion models are developed by taking the 
existing models into consideration. In a few instances, many 
significant components of existing models are incorporated to 
new models. The new model may be adapted to fit other 
application or to take advantage of new technologies. In either 
case the refinement of older models and the formulation of new 
models rely on the foundational physical process of soil erosion 
and the historical development of modeling efforts. 
The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), in its original and 
modified forms, is the most widely used model to estimate soil 
loss from watersheds (Rao et al, 1994). That the various 
parameters of USLE can be derived from rainfall distribution, 
soil characteristics, topographic parameters, vegetative cover 
and information on conservation support (erosion control) 
practice are often available in the form of maps or can be 
mapped through collection of data from possible sources. Due 
to geographic nature of these factors USLE can easily be 
modeled into GIS (Jain 1994). The USLE model applications in 
the grid environment with GIS would allow us to analyze soil 
erosion in much more detail since the process has a spatially 
distributed character (Ashish Pandey et al. 2007). The GIS and 
Remote Sensing (RS) provide spatial input data to the model, 
while the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) can be used to 
predict the sediment yield from the watershed. 
In the present study, USLE is used to estimate potential soil 
erosion from Indravati catchment. Both magnitude and spatial 
distribution of potential soil erosion in the catchment is 
determined. An ArcGIS package is used in developing digital 
data and another GIS package Integrated Land and Water 
Information Systems (ILWIS) is used for processing remote 
sensing data. ILWIS is also used in spatial data analysis to 
determine magnitude and spatial distribution of potential soil 
erosion.