Effect of Brick Field on Riverine Morpho-hydrological Environment: Study in Kopai River of South Bengal Plateau Fringe

Abstract

Brick field is one of the important seasonal industrial activities in India but it has an antithetic impact on river. The majority of brick fields are of recent origin and situated along the bank of the lower catchment area. Nowadays, the rivers are adversely affected by increasing pollution and sedimentation, dumping of ashes, extraction of sand from the river bed and hinder the natural flow of the river. The present study is undertaken to assess the impact of the riparian brick field on geomorphic responses of hydraulic variables, planform change in different segments of Kopai River during 1990 to 2018 and spatial variation of river water quality. Location of riparian brick fields have been identified with the help of satellite imageries of different time periods (1990 to 2018), high-resolution Google Earth image and verified by GPS during field survey. The channel was divided into three segments to quantifying the geomorphic responses and changing planform indices. The study denotes that brick field activities lead to reduce the channel meander as well as decrease the sinuosity index and indicates a decreasing tendency of the braiding index as well as deteriorating the river health.