Runoff Induced Soil Erosion and its Impact on the Quality of Water for Upper-Patiala-Ki-Rao Catchment Lying on Shivalik Hills

Abstract

In this research paper runoff induced soil erosion and its impact on the quality of water of upper Patiala-Ki-Rao catchment located on Shivalik hills of Punjab and Haryana states of India were quantified. The selected ungauged basin is divided into two sub-watersheds and there are four gauged micro-watersheds nested within it. The simultaneous calibration is carried out for selected ungauged watershed, sub-watersheds and four gauged micro-watersheds to simulate the discharge and soil loss using Arc-SWAT and remote sensing. The model is first validated for four gauged micro-watersheds and then the predicted discharge and soil loss was validated for selected ungauged watershed and two sub-watersheds using a regionalization approach to make sure that the model was representing the watershed as a whole. The results of statistical analysis after thorough manual calibration and validation predicts that the SWAT model can satisfactorily simulate stream-flow and sediment yield for the upper Patiala-Ki-Rao watershed. In addition, water samples were collected for each runoff producing rain event during monsoon season for two years to access the impact of soil loss on the quality of water.