Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 128 (2022) 103219 Available online 28 August 2022 1474-7065/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Sub-watershed prioritization of Koyna river basin in India using multi criteria analytical hierarchical process, remote sensing and GIS techniques R.S. Shelar a , S.P. Shinde a , Chaitanya B. Pande b , Kanak N. Moharir c , Israel R. Orimoloye d , Arun P. Mishra e, * , Abhay M. Varade f a Dept. of Soil & Water Conservation Engineering, Dr. A.S. College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, MPKV, Rahuri, Ahmednagar, M.S, India b National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad, India c Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, India d School of Social Science, The Independent Institute of Education, IIEMSA, Roodepoort, 1724, Johannesburg, South Africa e Botanical Survey of India, Northern Regional Centre 192, Kaulagarh Road, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India f Department of Geology, RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur, India A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Watershed prioritization Analytical hierarchical process (AHP) RS and GIS ABSTRACT Watershed characterization and prioritization have become essential for proper natural resources management and sustainable development. This paper introduces an empirical hierarchical method based on the multi-criteria analytical hierarchical process (AHP). This method has been applied for sub-watershed or watershed prioriti- zation and land and water development of sensitive areas in the Koyna River Basin. The study area was delin- eated and classifed into nineteen sub-watersheds, which referred as SW1 to SW19. Remote sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) methods are highly developed that help planners and policymakers create reliable and timely plans and decisions. The geomorphologic parameters are used in the watershed prioritization analysis covering the linear/areal aspects viz. the bifurcation ratio, stream density, stream frequency, drainage intensity, texture ratio, overland fow with profle factors. Drainage intensity is identifed as the most important of morphometric characteristics to identify the prioritization of the watershed. We have found that SW1 to SW5, SW9, SW10, SW16, and SW19 very high priority sub-watersheds, SW6, SW7, SW8, SW11, SW13, SW15, SW17, and SW18 moderate priority sub-watersheds and SW12 and SW14 low priority sub-watersheds in the basin area using RS and GIS methods. These sub-watershed wise planning and management would be benefcial important for the maintaining the ecosystem, and recharging groundwater. The results can be helpful to the development and planning of groundwater resources. 1. Introduction The land feeds whole water running under streams off it is a standard water body (Johnson et al., 2013). It links with various watersheds to form a rivers network and drainage that stream into a more critical water region (Swallow et al., 2001). Natural element of the Earth’s surface that combines various important natural resources factors such as morphology, groundwater, soils, geology, forest, surface water, near-surface troposphere, and vegetation’s that affects land use pros- pects and the outcome of historical and contemporary human activities (Corn, 1993; Cannon, 2000; Pande et al. 2017, 2018a, 2018b). Geo- morphology landforms are most important for planning of watershed and water resource management. Therefore, the river stream has a signifcant consequence in a geomorphic investigation (Pande et al., 2017). A watershed is exemplary for planning and developing envi- ronmental resources like soil, land, water, etc., to mitigate the impact of environmental calamities and accomplish sustainable development plans in the semi-arid region (Pande et al., 2019; Rajesh et al., 2021). Morphometry is an estimation and mathematical calculation of the earth’s surface features, form, and size (Agarwal, 1998). In recent de- cades, an improvement of quantifable approaches to defning the development and behavior of surface stream networks. A signifcant focus of geomorphological research for many years (Horton, 1945; Leopold and Maddock, 1953; Obi Reddy et al., 2002; Swami et al., 2012). Morphometric river basin analysis has given valuable data for groundwater monitoring (Kaushal and Belt, 2012) surface water, * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: chaitanay45@gmail.com (C.B. Pande), arunpratap7371@gmail.com (A.P. Mishra). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Physics and Chemistry of the Earth journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pce https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2022.103219 Received 24 April 2022; Received in revised form 8 August 2022; Accepted 10 August 2022