International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 09 Issue: 05 | May 2022 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 © 2022, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.529 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1941 WATERSHED PRIORITIZATION IN RELATION TO SOIL EROSION USING GEOSPATIAL TECHNIQUES IN MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF BAMA WATERSHED, MAHARASHTRA Sagar D. Patil 1 , Prajval P. Shisode 2 , Pandurang L. Burange 3 Shramshakti College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Maldad, Maharashtra, India --------------------------------------------------------------------------***----------------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT Land and water resources are depleting at global as well as in India as the population grows. The need of food, fiber and water is also increasing day by day to feed this ever-increasing population. Production process is impossible without natural resources, therefore conserved and utilized of land and water resources in an efficient manner is the only way for sustainable development of human being. Conservation of natural resources is a site specific, therefore effective site-specific planning is the most important parameter. In the current technical era Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) plays a vital role for site specific planning of natural resources. Therefore, in the present study RS and GIS Tools are used for Morphometric Analysis of Bhama river basin of Pune district, Maharashtra, India. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) based watershed delineation and prioritization Bhama watershed was done by using Geospatial tools. The work outlines the significance of digital elevation model for assessment of drainage pattern and extraction of relative parameters. Basin has been divided into 11 sub-watersheds namely SW1 to SW11. It has been observed that the watershed's mean bifurcation ratio was 9.17, indicating a low mountainous region and a low drainage density of 3.2 km/km2, which very well fits the moderate soil texture, which signifies strong infiltration and minimal runoff owing to extensive forest cover. Lower peaks of longer duration with elongated watershed favor lower form factor ratio and elongation ratio of 0.25 and 0.57, respectively, which is helpful for preventing floods in downstream. The relatively low relief ratio of 0.018 correlates to modest erosion intensity. A modest roughness number of 2.28 is the result of low drainage density and relief. The stream order of watershed ranges from first to sixth order and have dendritic drainage pattern means homogeneity in texture and lack of structural control. It was considered as high priority for adopting conservation measure as well results were showing the appropriate measure structure locations for preventing the soil from getting eroded from the highly prioritized sub-watershed. Keywords: - Bhama River Basin, Remote Sensing, GIS, Prioritization, Morphometric analysis INTRODUCTION The measuring and mathematical study of the configuration of the earth's surface, shape, and size of its landforms is known as morphological analysis. The use of quantitative analysis of morphometric characteristics in river basin evaluation, watershed prioritizing for soil and water conservation, and natural resource management at the watershed level has been discovered to be quite beneficial. Any hydrological research, such as groundwater potential evaluation, groundwater management, pedology, and environmental assessment, requires morphological analysis (Sreedevi et al., 2009). Hydrologists and geomorphologists have discovered that some relationships exist between runoff characteristics and drainage basin system geographic and geomorphic properties. Physiographic properties of drainage basins, such as size, form, slope of drainage area, drainage density, size and length of contributories, and so on, can be linked to a variety of key hydrologic phenomena. For morphometric analysis, remote sensing techniques employing satellite pictures and aerial photography are useful. Satellite remote sensing is highly effective in assessing drainage morphometry since it can offer a synoptic picture of a vast area. In a watershed management programme, particularly in case of large watersheds, it may not be possible to treat the entire area of the watershed with land treatment measures. Identification and selection of few areas or sub-watersheds having relatively more degradation problem, for development planning and implementation of conservation activities according to