Impact assessment of river bank erosion in the lower part of Mahanadi River using geospatial sciences

Abstract

The river bank erosion is gradually changing landscape in river and riverine areas. Therefore, assessment of the exact uncovering and altering of the various river features aspects is more essential. The current analysis is dedicated to river bank erosion (RBE) on lower part of the Mahanadi River (Odisha) using Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS applications. The Mahanadi River basin is more dynamic and affects the neighborhood landscape. The difficulties of river bank areas are indirectly or directly associated with bank erosion, this usually produces lots of challenges like landslides, flood hazards, flood inundation, and land alteration. Landsat imageries are applied to extract erosional locations and land alteration by applying satellite datasets and geospatial software like ArcGIS software v10.8 and ERDAS Imagine v2014. Erosion rate variations were measured through the Erase tool by applying GIS methods. The lower part of Mahanadi River has changed all selected parts like 1091 ha (A), 1245 ha (B), and 646 ha (C), while the accretion areas are like 865 ha (A), 1204 ha (B), and 812 ha (C) correspondingly. The vegetation gradually decreased (3241 ha) while the cropland increased (1541 ha), while the river sand is observed at 1374 ha (1991) and 1727 ha (221) in the investigated area. The most affected villages are Patugadadharpur, Dankarisahi, Rasanga, Karabar, Badabanpur, Gopa, Gopinathpur, and Samapurdal. Therefore, the erosion or accretion activities are triggering landscape change over the examining location. These outcomes help to prepare for future disaster management, building awareness, novel adaptation strategies, and planning purposes.