Abstract
The morphometric characteristics of a river basin are very important factors in watershed hydrology. The morphometric analysis of the Ofu River sub-basin was carried out in this study to assess its morphologic and hydrological characteristics as well as its flood potentials based on the morphological characteristics. The study was carried out using remotely sensed spatial data analysed using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The morphometric parameters analysed were the areal, linear, and relief aspects of the sub-basin. The results showed that Ofu river sub-basin covers a total area of 1604.56 km 2 and a perimeter of 556.98 km covering parts of Kogi and Enugu States in Nigeria. The sub-basin has 3rd order river network based on the Strahler’s classification with a dendritic drainage pattern and moderate drainage texture. The values of bifurcation ratio, drainage density, circularity ratio, elongation ratio, form factor, stream frequency and drainage intensity indicate that the sub-basin is elongated and would produce a flatter peak of direct runoff for a longer duration implying that the sub-basin is morphometrically less susceptible to flood and that any flood flow that may emanate from it would be easy to manage. Keywords: Delineation, GIS, Morphometric analysis, Ofu river sub-basin, Remote sensing
Highlights
Morphometric analysis of a river basin refers to the measurement and mathematical evaluation of the surface, shape and dimension of its landform (Agarwal, 1998; Obi et al, 2002; Kulkarni, 2015)
The delineation of Ofu River Catchment was carried out using the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission Digital Elevation Model (SRTM-DEM) version 3 and the drainage network extracted from the River map of Africa
The results show that Ofu River catchment covers a total area of 1,604.56 km2 and is bounded by a perimeter of 556.98 km. 41.89 % of this area falls in Dekina LGA, 24.4 % in Ofu LGA, 19.72 % in Igalamela/Odolu LGA, 0.23 % in Idah LGA and 13.30 % in Ibaji LGA all in Kogi State while 0.42 % falls in Uzo-Uwani LGA in Enugu State
Summary
Morphometric analysis of a river basin refers to the measurement and mathematical evaluation of the surface, shape and dimension of its landform (Agarwal, 1998; Obi et al, 2002; Kulkarni, 2015). GIS and remote sensing tools were used to study the morphometric characteristics of the basin They determined the linear, areal and relief aspects of the watershed characteristics. Withanage et al (2014) carried out morphometric analysis of the Gal Oya River Basin in Sri Lanka to assess its hydrological characteristics and flood potentials based on the morphological characteristics. 2, JUNE 2019 utilized spatial data obtained from Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to estimate the linear, areal and relief aspects of the basin characteristics They noted that the Gal Oya River was a 6th order river network following the Strahler’s classification with a dendritic drainage pattern and moderate drainage texture. The morphometric analysis of the Ofu River subbasin was carried out in this study to assess its morphologic and hydrological characteristics as well as its flood potentials based on the morphological characteristics
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