Modeling GIS to Investigate Soil Erosion Potentials of Watersheds: A Micro Catchment Based Analysis of a Developing Country

Abstract

With the rapid expansion of world population, the demand for the fresh water is continuously ever- increasing throughout the world and the contraction of the quality of environment due to needs of increasing population is one of the major 2 problems in the world today. In particular, human activities on river basin areas are very tremendous in developing countries. In this context, many efforts have been taken to apply proper River Basin Management measures to protect River Basins and their natural characteristics. However, most of the agendas didn’t address the real dilemmas of watersheds in developing countries. This book focuses on developing a new Geographical Information Systems (GIS) model to investigate soil erosion potential areas of micro basins in Sri Lanka. This study revealed that the best way of protecting river basins is to apply proper preservation measures in micro basin levels using GIS as a very effective environmental hazard monitoring tool.