Dr. Dheeraj Kumar
Associate Professor
Indian School of Mines (ISM)
India

Biography
Dr. Dheeraj Kumar is currently heading Mine Surveying Section, Department of Mining Engineering, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. His areas of expertise include Surveying, Geomatics and IT Application in mining. He has published more than 50 research papers and presented several papers in India and Abroad. He has completed more than 50 consultancy projects sponsored by various mining industries and several research projects. He has trained more than 500 executives of mining industries in EDPs.

Abstract
Soil Erosion Hazard Evaluation by Integrating Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (Rusle) with GIS Techniques

Among the various natural hazards, soil erosion hazards and mass movement are probably the most damaging to the natural and human environment in mountainous region of India. Remote sensing using satellite images in combination with GIS can be an essential tool to explain and display the distribution of hazards and areas getting affected at different magnitudes in erosion prone areas. Soil erosion hazard maps are very useful to planners and policy makers initiating remedial measures and prioritizing areas.
A quantitative assessment of soil erosion vulnerability of forest mountainous region of outer Himalaya with dense Nainital town (mountainous region of India) sub water shed was made with advanced GIS techniques integrating with a very well-known Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model considering rainfall, soil land use and terrain conditions. The soil loss estimation map shows that the areas with natural forest cover have minimum rate of erosion while areas with high human activities have high rate of erosion. Terrain alterations along with high LS factor and rainfall prompt these areas to be more susceptible. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and GIS techniques along with spatial models were applied to generate the selected standardized factors maps. The factor map layers were integrated with their factor weights by means of a weighted linear combination to derive a hazard index. The hazard map was graded into five levels of hazard: very high, high, moderate, low and very low. The results depicted that in general, a moderate to high hazardous condition of soil erosion was found in the study area. Therefore, comprehensive erosion hazard management strategies based on this study could be anticipated for the efficient management of present and future erosion disaster.