ABSTRACT
The calculations of terrain aspects are a crucial tool to estimate the soil erosion risk of any watershed. The Lolab watershed was separated into 12 subwatersheds (LS131 to LS1312) to evaluate subwatershed-wise soil erosion behavior using digital elevation model in Arc GIS 10.2 and Global Mapper software. The Lolab watershed is a sixth-order basin with varied drainage pattern from dendritic to subdendritic. Linear, shape, and relief aspects were calculated and given a rank based on the value/relationship with erodibility, to delineate more erosion prone areas. The area was categorized into four classes, namely, low, medium, high, and very high based on alarm of soil conservation and management. Ranking based on compound value exposes that subwatersheds LS138 & LS139 fall in very high priority with respect to 150soil erodibility. The soil erosion chances in these high priority subwatersheds are more because of steep slopes, deep valleys, and high altitudinal, topography which increase upper loose soil cover erosion underlain by highly structured lithology. The low priority LSB1, LSB5, and LSB10 may be covered by dense forest, hence are less prone to soil erosion. The morphometric calculations and other terrain aspects showed their significance in the measurement of soil erosion behavior suggested for initiating soil conservation and landslide mitigation activities, and resultantly water conservation. The present work is mainly focused to recognize vulnerable areas to soil erosion necessary to begin defensive procedures to minimize the ill-effects originated due to soil erosion.
