Spatial decision support system for watershed management

A prototype spatial decision support system (SDSS) is presented for watershed management. The SDSS integrates landuse/landcover derived from the remote sensing data, real-time hydrological data, geographic information system, and a model-based subsystem for computing soil loss, land capability classification and engineering measures. A graphical user interface has been developed to allow effective use by decision makers. The model-based subsystem employs a process-based soil erosion model to compute soil loss in spatial environment. Computed pixel-based soil loss information is an input to the land capability classification and watershed management modules. The developed SDSS can help the end users in avoiding the laborious procedures of soil erosion calculations and analysing various thematic layers to get suitable watershed management practices. The SDSS for watershed management is applied to the Tones watershed in India to compute soil loss, to prioritise watersheds, and to suggest various watershed management practices.