Integrating the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) With GIS for Evaluating the Soil Erosion Susceptibility: A Case Study of Alwar, Rajasthan, India

Soil erosion is considered a significant threat to the ecosystem. The evaluation of the soil erosion potential is required for planning and mitigation of soil losses. The aim of this study is to integrate the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in a geographic information system (GIS) environment to evaluate soil erosion susceptibility. In this study, 10 influencing factors of soil erosion are identified. The causative factors for soil erosion are elevation, aspect, plan curvature, profile curvature, annual average rainfall, drainage density, slope, geology, distance from the lineament and land use. These factors are further divided into sub‐factors, and their relative contribution to soil erosion is modelled using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The causative factors are reclassified in the GIS environment, and the weightages calculated using AHP are assigned. The reclassed parameters are overlaid to get an erosion susceptibility map, which is divided into five categories according to the erosion susceptibility index, from very low to very high. It is found that the erosion susceptibility index of the study area varies from 0.016 to 0.423. It is observed that 38% of the total study area is under high and very high erosion susceptibility zones. Around 15% of the study area faces very high erosion susceptibility. The results of the study can be improved by implementing statistical techniques and machine learning models for the prediction of soil erosion susceptibility.