Spatial estimation and climate projected change of cover-management factor in semi-arid region of India

Abstract

Soil erosion and its future projection play an important role in the changing climatic scenario. An attempt has been made to establish a relationship between NDVI and cover-management factor (C-factor) which varies with area and crop. IRS LISS III data with 23.5 m resolution is used to derive precisely NDVI and correlated with C-factor, the derived regression equation shows a good relationship between NDVI and C-factor value. An approach was made to use this area specific equation for getting C- factor for the whole Mahabubnagar district, Telangana from 2013 imagery data and the study was conducted in 2017. For future scenarios study, a relationship between rainfall, temperature, and NDVI of the whole district was derived. The NDVI value of the study area varies between 0.63 and 0.046. Based on the regression model C-factor for the future scenarios using available CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project-5) has been mapped for the whole district. Using the NDVI map, the C-factor map of the area was prepared in ArcGIS 10.0 software. The spatial distribution shows that the C-factor values varied between 0.52-0.86. On an average C- factor for 2020s, 2050s and in 2080s were 0.53, 0.76, and 0.77 respectively. The predicted C- factor values were then brought under the GIS environment and C- factor prediction maps were generated.

Keywords

• C-factor
• Climate change
• GIS
• RUSLE
• Semi-arid tropics
• Soil erosion