The use of erosion features inventory data in erosion susceptibility studies with multi-criteria decision analysis: the case of Selendi River Basin

There are numerous studies in the literature regarding Erosion Susceptibilty Analysis using a multicriteria decision analysis method. However the subjective assesments, during the weighting of the parameters, are alwyas likely to incur questions about the objectivity and scientificity of a given study. To avoid this problem in our work we have used an Erosion Features Inventory methodology and applied it to the Selendi River Basin. For the erosion susceptibilty analysis, a database of geographical measurements, thought to be effecting erosion, were prepared for the area under observation. Each of the parameters used in erosion susceptibilty analysis were aligned with erosion features recorded in the research area. Based on that we determined the parameters in the Erosion Susceptability Analysis. Subequently we applied variance and standard deviation analysis to our results. Using the statistical analysis results we determined parameters and sub-classesbased on the actual surface measurements. As a result the “Erosion Susceptibilty Analysis” was completed by using a the multi-criteria decision based method largely avoiding all subjectivity in the outcome. Erosion features inventory have been found to be an effective tool for researchers to make a land-based assessment erosion susceptibility analysis with multi-criteria analysis.