

Kratovska Reka is a short (17.3 km) left tributary of Kriva Reka, whose watershed (68.5 km2) is located on the northwestern slopes of the Osogovo Mountains (North Macedonia). Due to the favorable natural conditions and anthropogenic factors, the Kratovska Reka catchment is under a high risk of natural hazards, especially water erosion and landslide occurrences. For this reason, the paper presents an approach of modelling of potential erosion and areas susceptible to the above-mentioned hydro-meteorological hazards in the Kratovska River catchment. Firstly, this study analyzed the main geographical features that contribute to intensive erosion processes in the area. Then, using the Gavrilović EPM erosion potential method, an average value of 0.56 was obtained for the erosion coefficient Z, indicating areas prone to high erosion risk. Furthermore, by using landslide susceptibility analysis (LSA), terrains susceptible to landslides were identified. The results shows that 1/3 of the catchment is very susceptible to mass movements in wet conditions (landslides). According to the combined multi-hazard model, 3.13% of the total area of the Kratovska River catchment is both at high risk of landslides and under severe erosion. The Kratovska River catchment is significantly endangered by the excessive water erosion processes (39.86%), especially on the steep valley sides, i.e., terrains that are completely exposed, under sparse vegetation, and open to the effects of distribution/concentration of the rainfall amounts throughout the year. Identifying locations with the highest erosion risk serves as the initial step in defining and implementing appropriate mitigation measures across local and regional scales, thus enhancing overall resilience to environmental challenges. © 2023 by the authors.
| Engineering controlled terms: | CatchmentsErosionGeographic information systemsHazardsLandslidesRiversRunoffWatersheds |
|---|---|
| Engineering uncontrolled terms | Geohazard mitigationGeohazardsHazard modelingHydro-meteorological hazardKratovska rekumMacedoniaMass movementMass movement (wet)Multi-hazard modelingMulti-hazardsNorth macedoniaRisks assessmentsWater erosion |
| Engineering main heading: | Risk assessment |
| GEOBASE Subject Index: | catchmentGIShazard assessmenthydrometeorologymass movementrisk assessmentwater erosionwatershed |
| Regional Index: | Macedonia [Southern Europe] |
| Funding sponsor | Funding number | Acronym |
|---|---|---|
| Horizon 2020 Framework Programme See opportunities by H2020 | 952384 | H2020 |
| Horizon 2020 Framework Programme See opportunities by H2020 | H2020 | |
| Ministarstvo Prosvete, Nauke i Tehnološkog Razvoja | 451-03-47/2023-01/200125 | MPNTR |
| Ministarstvo Prosvete, Nauke i Tehnološkog Razvoja | MPNTR |
The authors from the Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia, are grateful to the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia (Grant No. 451-03-47/2023-01/200125) for their support. Tin Lukić and Slobodan B. Marković acknowledge partial support of the H2020 WIDESPREAD-05-2020—Twinning: EXtremeClimTwin, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 952384. Finally, the authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers whose comments and suggestions greatly improved the manuscript.
Lukić, T.; Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 3, Novi Sad, Serbia;
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