Assessing vulnerability to soil erosion based on fuzzy best worse multi-criteria decision-making method

Abstract

AbstractSoil wearing away or erosion is a chief agent of land loss in agricultural land and is regarded worldwide as a serious environmental hazard. This study performed watershed prioritization using morphometric parameters based on fuzzy best worse method (F-BWM) and GIS integration for Gusru Watershed, India. This study prioritizes sub-watersheds of the study area from viewpoint of soil erosion using five major parameters i.e., stream frequency (Fs), relative relief (Rr), length of overland flow (Lo), relief ratio (Rh) and drainage density (Dd). Fuzzy based Best Worse Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (F-BWM) Method was used to assigning weights to used criteria and combining them to achieve erosion susceptibility for each sub-watershed. Results showed that sub-watersheds 9, 14, and 5 were most susceptible to soil erosion and sub-watershed 3 was the least from the viewpoint of soil erosion ranking.