Evaluation and Zonation the Gully Erosion Hazard using Bivariate Statistical Methods (Case Study: Nemarestagh Watershed)

One of the most important and advanced forms of water erosion is gully erosion that causes the destruction of land and sediment production in many areas, resulting in a lot of economic damage. The Nemarestagh watershed is one of the sub-basins of the river Haraz which is exposed to expanding this form of erosion. It is necessary to determine the sensitivity of the area by using appropriate methods to plan its control. For this purpose, 133 gullies were first recognized and recorded through Google Earth image, aerial photography and extensive field surveys. Randomly out of this number, 99 gullies are used for modeling and 34 gullies are implemented for evaluation. The layers of effective factors including lithology, elevation, slope, aspect and vegetation and land use were prepared using ArcGIS environment. In the next step, the length and density of gullies in per class of the factors were calculated by overlaying the layers and the map of the risk zoning of gully erosion in the region was provided using the frequency ratio and information value statistical methods. The results showed that Shemshak formation with shale, sandstone, siltstone and conglomerate, elevation of 1000-1200 meters, the slope of 40-50 percents, the southern direction and poor pasture have a highest gully erosion susceptibility. The evaluation of statistical methods using the probabilistic probability showed that the information value model is more suitable for hazard zonation in the area.