Assessment and Application of the Morphometric Attributes of the Bharathapuzha River Basin, India Using Geographical Information System

Abstract

AbstractAssessment of morphological attributes of a catchment area with inaccessible land parcels by geospatial technique is one of the major advantages of space technology. Due to the spatially varying and complex characteristics of catchments, the selection of data for morphometric analysis should be made very carefully. This study aims to assess the Bharathapuzha River basin’s morphometric nature, which has complex topographic features, using the Cartosat-1 Digital Elevation Model, a freely available National Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with 1-arc second resolution. Commonly in all morphometric studies, ignoring the topographical characteristics, DEM is chosen, and the drainage networks are extracted regardless of the threshold drainage area. In this study, DEM selection is done by considering the complex topography of the basin, and the drainage networks are extracted by defining a meaningful threshold. The primary catchment characteristics were directly mapped from the DEM, and by using them, the secondary characteristics were calculated. The drainage network obtained from this study closely matches with the natural pattern of the drainage network in the basin. Hence, this study demonstrates that the Indian National DEM from Cartosat-1 can be used confidently for morphometric studies of river basins with mountainous topography. The peak discharge and time of concentration of the basin were derived by using the estimated morphometric parametric values. Also, in this study, the groundwater potential zones of the basin were identified based on morphometric parameters.KeywordsMorphometryGeographical information systemDigital elevation modelBharathapuzha River basinGroundwater potential zones