GIS-based assessment of morphological and hydrological parameters of Wainganga River Basin, Central India

Abstract

River basin planning is a systematic approach to the specific problems related to availability and access to water for various purposes, and to simultaneously ensure the ecological integrity of a river system. GIS-based assessment of morphological and hydrological process inflows, rainfall–runoff modeling and regression equations was discussed using geographical information systems and remote sensing techniques. The Wainganga River emerges from a spring in the plains of Madhya Pradesh and has a meandering flow. The river is mostly shallow and wide in this region. The depth of the river increases in the backwaters of the Sanjay Sarovar Dam. In observation, the total number of streams of 27 sub-basins is 9472; the diverse geology implies geohydrological heterogeneity at the river basin scale. This heterogeneity could be amenable to comprehensive river-basin planning of recharge, discharge and conservation. The monthly rainfall–runoff models (R–R models) so developed are R = 1.019 * P − 418.20 height in the Bhimkund catchment area, and the lowest is R = 0.532 * P + 194.60 in Bamni catchment. The present study depicts the process of evaluating various morphological and hydrological parameters of the Wainganga River by applying remote sensing, geographical information system and global positioning system techniques. The data can be used for basin management, hydrological, and utilized in restoration and conservation of natural resource studies in the future.