Prioritization of potential soil erosion susceptibility region using fuzzy logic and analytical hierarchy process, upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

Abstract

Soil erosion poses a global threat to soil loss, agricultural land deterioration, and crop yield decreases. This paper accounts for the establishment of sustainable land planning, and methods for evaluating soil erosion rates. The study was conducted based on the system complex analysis to prioritize soil erosion in Ribb watershed to improve soil and water conservation planning. Several geographical-environmental factors affecting soil erosion (land use, soil, slope, SPI, TWI, river Proximity, curvature, aspect) considered to assess potential soil erosion risk. The information levels were focused on expert experience, and the dynamic decision-making process built in a network framework. The weights for each layer were computed by R Studio fuzzy AHP package. The map of soil erosion susceptibility was developed by combining layers in a platform based on their weights and means of erosion-related incidents in regional surveys. Hence, the soil erosion map's overall results showed very high, high, moderate, low, and very low vulnerability to erosion with areal coverage of 13.4 %, 27.93 %, 32.74 %, 17.42 %, and 8.5 %, respectively. The susceptibility map demonstrates that high soil erosion sensitive areas with Fuzzy and AHP respectively cover 11.05 % and 15.75 %. The study indicates that priority should be given to high and very high erosion-prone areas in Rib watershed to adapt to climate change and control sedimentation problems in the Rib reservoir and Lake Tana.