Prioritization of Linear Erosion Using Morphometric and Geomorphological Indicators Case Study: Gheshlagh Watershed, Sanandaj West of Iran

The soil erosion issue and lands' degradation is one of the most important issues in natural sciences. Soil erosion is the predominant geomorphic process on many land surfaces. In order to assess the environmental and economic consequences of soil erosion, quantitative data are needed. In this research, soil erosion is studied with of morphometric parameters. For this aim, Gheshlagh river basin iin Kurdistan province, was studied. Areas with a rating of more than 2 that entered directly into the main river were plotted as sub-basins for morphometric calculations. These areas included 47 sub-basins. The number of 16 morphometric parameters were calculated to determine the morphometric conditions of the basin and were considered as the input layer. Then, the results of these parameters were aggregated by four multi-criteria decision models TOPSIS, VIKOR, SAW and CF. In all four, the northern sub-basins were classified as areas with low and very low susceptibility to erosion. These basins are often located in volcanic rocks. In a general view, according to all four models studied, the basins in the lithology of dark gray shale (Sanandaj shale). Their sensitivity to erosion have been classified from moderate to very high. the final results showed that the multi-criteria decision-making methods, by presenting a classification, divide the region into several classes in terms of the degree of erosion sensitivity, and the VIKOR method, due to the greater coefficient of variation, has more accurate than the others.