Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Climate change and human-induced changes are severely affecting soil degradation and erosion; these changes pose a serious threat to the sustainability of the river basin and to the loss of agricultural land and livelihoods. In the last few decades, the availability of high-resolution satellite images, field observations, and modeling tools has provided insightful information for the assessment, monitoring, and management of natural resources, and for predicting and protecting the restoration of river ecology. The Karmanasa River is an important perennial river of the Middle Ganga Plain, supporting extensive agricultural land and comprising a diverse geological and geomorphological landscape, and is currently facing severe soil erosion and land degradation. In this study, an integrated approach is used to identify and delineate watersheds and to analyse parameters to understand the river mics. Thereafter, hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques such as Weighted Sum Analysis (WSA), Sediment Production Rate (SPR), and the Analytical Hierarchy Process Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (AHP–TOPSIS) are used to prioritize watersheds based on their susceptibility to soil erosion. The results indicate that the WSA and SPR models identified that nearly 38–40% and 42.6% of the watersheds were vulnerable to erosion, respectively. The AHP–TOPSIS approach, with a consistency ratio (CR) of 0.016 and a ranking of 39.8%, falls under the high-priority erosion susceptibility category. To validate the AHP–TOPSIS results, the Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient and Kendall Tau Correlation Coefficient were used; both yielded a positive correlation coefficient of 0.37. The present study explores significant data to identify priority watersheds, restoration measures, and strategies to mitigate soil erosion, thereby enhancing sustainable land and basin management and supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Furthermore, findings can be applied to other river basins and provide a practical framework for river basin management.</p>