Morphometric and geologic characterization with statistical correlations for thirty-three tributary drainage basins of the San Juan River watershed in the Four Corners Region, USA

Management of natural resources particularly soil and water is very important. The watershed is considered to be the ideal unit for management of natural resources. Remote sensing and GIS, being efficient, accurate and time saving techniques have found great relevance for management of natural assets. In the present study, remote sensing and GIS have been used to evaluate the morphometric parameters of the Dada watershed located in the lower Shivaliks of Punjab. The high resolution ALOS PALSAR digital elevation model having spatial resolution of 12.5 m has been used for calculating various morphometric parameters such as linear, aerial and relief aspects of the watershed morphometry. Morphometric parameters such as stream order, stream length, drainage density, stream frequency, circulatory ratio, form factor, bifurcation ratio, elongation ratio, compactness coefficient etc. have been evaluated. The total area and perimeter of the study watershed is 1491.1 ha and 29.1 km, respectively. The results of the study revealed that the Dada watershed is 5th order watershed. It was observed that total number of streams in the study watershed is 377 out of which 216 are of 1st order, 94 are of 2nd order, 60 are of 3rd order, 6 are of 4th order and 1 is of 5th order. The total lengths of all stream is 71.98 km and mean stream length is 190.92 m. Drainage density of the watershed is 4.83 km/km2. Drainage texture and length of overland flow are 30.45 no./km and 2.414 km, respectively. The watershed is having stream frequency of 25.28 no./km2 and mean bifurcation ratio of 4.97. The watershed has form factor of 0.27, circulatory ratio of 0.22 and the elongation ratio of 0.586. The present study is constructive discourse to comprehend the hydrological behaviour of the watershed. It would be useful for planning and implementation of soil and water conservation measures in the Dada watershed.

Geographical information system (GIS) has emerged as a professional tool in demarcation of drainage pattern and ground water potential and its planning. GIS and image processing techniques can be utilized for the identification of morphological characteristics and investigating properties of basin. The morphometric parameters of basin can deal with linear, areal and relief features. The present study deals mainly with the geometry, more importance being given on the evaluation of morphometric parameters such as stream order (Nu), stream length (Lu), bifurcation ratio (Rb), drainage density (D), stream frequency (Fs), texture ratio (T), elongation ratio (Re), circularity ratio (Rc), and form factor ratio (Rf) etc. Study area is Phulambri river basin located in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. The GIS based Morphometric analysis of this drainage basin revealed that the Girja-Purna is 6th order drainage basin and drainage pattern mainly in dendritic type thereby indicates homogeneity in texture and lack of structural control. Total number of streams is 1616, in which 895 are first order, 391 are second order, 196 are third order and 97 are fourth order streams and 36 of the fifth order and 1 of the sixth order. The length of stream segment is maximum for first order stream and decreases as the stream order increases. The drainage density (Dd) of study area is 0.030 km/km 2 .

A basin’s characteristics and features need to be comprehended completely by conducting morphometric analysis, such as evaluating the basin’s size, form, and surface features, to estimate floods and erosion rates properly. The main objective of this investigation is to evaluate morphometric measures and hypsometric analysis of Erbil’s Ruste Basin employing remote sensing and geographical information system methods. To investigate the significant tributaries of the selected area, the hydrology tool within the Spatial Analysis Tools of ArcGIS, version 10.7, was utilized to define the basin boundaries, map the drainage networks, and obtain topographic data. The findings of the linear morphometric parameters revealed that the logarithmic relationship between stream orders and stream numbers was negative. The difference in stream order and number seen in the watershed is due to topography and bedrock influence. The results also showed a negative correlation between stream length and stream order, and a coefficient of determination of 0.972, which indicates that the basin is made of low-permeability formation and subsoil materials. Considering the areal morphometric parameters, the circularity ratio, elongation ratio, and form factor are 0.594, 0.853 and 0.572, respectively, suggested a semi-circular shape. A drainage density value of 2.259 km-1 showed that the Ruste Basin is a basin with steeply to very steeply sloping hilly terrain with varying plant covering. Furthermore, the Ruste Basin has high relief and slope with a relief ratio of 0.151 and basin relief of 2.576 km, both of which imply that it has a steep slope with high erosive force, limited infiltration, and a high runoff rate. Ruste Basin’s ruggedness number was 5.819, indicating that it has badlands topography. The average hypsometric integral was 0.467, denoting a mature basin featuring S-shaped hypsometric curves. In conclusion, the results showed that analysis of morphometric parameters and hypsometric integral and curve provides us with a notion to basin characterization and guidance to making appropriate decisions to establish effective actions to sustainable water and soil conservation and natural resources management through applying water harvesting methods, check dams, and bench terraces.

Remote sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques have become very important these days as they aid planners and decision makers to make effective and correct decision and designs. Geomorphological characteristics of a watershed are commonly used for developing the regional hydrological models for solving various hydrological problems of ungauged watersheds or inadequate data situations. A morphometric analysis of Mago basin of Arunachal Pradesh was carried out using RS and GIS techniques. The Watershed was delineated using ArcGIS10 software and divided into 15 subwatersheds and prioritized based on principal component analysis (PCA) using SPSS 14.0 software. The basic parameters (area, perimeter, stream order, stream length and stream number) of each sub-watershed were carried out separately using the ArcMap10. The linear morphometric parameters (stream order, total stream length and bifurcation ratio); aerial morphometric parameters (drainage density, stream frequency, form factor, circulatory ratio, elongation ratio, texture ratios, compactness constant and Ruggedness number); and relief morphometric parameters (relief ratio, relative relief, average slope and hypsometric integral) were computed with the help of standard formulae. The principal components were selected and then ranked based on their relationship with erodibility. The sub-watershed having the least compound parameter was assigned the highest priority and so on. The study area was found to have streams of highest order of 3, with order 1, having highest frequency. The obtained low drainage density of the basin indicates that the region is highly permeable. From the prioritization analysis, it was found that sub-watershed 2, 4, and 14 were the most erosion prone areas with rank 1. Therefore, these sub-watersheds need to be considered first and given prior importance for the implementation of any soil and water conservation measures for watershed management. Hence, RS and GIS techniques and PCA are important tools in the morphometric analysis and prioritization of watershed.

The present study is an attempt to evaluate the watershed characterization and potentiality of Wadi El-Arish, Sinai, Egypt using Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques. Thirty morphometric parameters (e.g. stream numbers, orders, lengths, frequency as well as bifurcation ratio, drainage density and relief) were measured depending on SRTM data of digital elevation model (DEM) with 30m resolution that enhanced by topographic maps (1:50,000). Ten compound parameter values were calculated and prioritization rating for erosion risk assessment was carried out. Based on the values of the effective morphometric parameters, flash flood hazards were identified and evaluated. The land use map was constructed from the geomorphological units of Wadi El-Arish basin as well as the field observations. The drainage area of Wadi El-Arish watershed is 22260.3 km 2 . It is subdivided into twelve sub-basins of different areas. The morphometric analysis indicates that the watershed is of eight stream order with dendritic type of drainage pattern and homogeneous nature. The relief ratio, slope, ruggedness number and visual interpretation of the DEM indicate variable slope and topography with late mature stage of geomorphic development. On the other hand, the drainage density, texture, circulatory and elongation ratios prove that the majority of the sub-basins are almost elongated and have coarse and intermediate drainage texture which indicate medium to high infiltration capacity. Accordingly, these sub-basins most probably have good groundwater prospect where the most rainfall infiltrate to recharge the aquifer via permeable soils and/or fractured and weathered rocks. Concerning the soil erosion condition, the sub-basins with the lowest compound parameter value (e.g. W10: Wadi Abu Aliqanah and W12: Wadi Aqabah) have been subjected to maximum soil erosion and need immediate soil conservation measures. Based on the morphometric parameters which have a direct influence on flooding prone area, the flash flood hazard of Wadi El-Arish sub-basins are classified into three groups; namely high, medium and low hazard degree. For mitigation measure (e.g. erection of the runoff water) some dams and dikes at the crossing point between the seventh stream order and eighth stream order are recommended to be constructed. In addition, these measures will support the recharging of the shallow groundwater storage and aquifers. According to the potentiality of the study watershed, the land use map which constructed from the geomorphological units classified the Wadi El-Arish basin into four classes; namely high, moderate, low and non-suitability classes for agriculture uses. The volume of annual flood for Wadi El-Arish watershed was classified into five classes graded from very high to very low. The groundwater potentiality map indicates that the different geographic locations are suitable for groundwater storage with different magnitudes and potentialities, but the overall groundwater potential is of the moderate class. The Lower Cretaceous is considered to be the aquifer with the greatest development potential among the other aquifer systems due to their limited extent, poor productivity and/or water quality.

Badlands are a hydrogeomorphological feature with operative processes leading to intense erosion. This study utilizes the morphometric methods with the help of remote sensing data in a GIS environment to determine the characteristics of the badlands of Mandakini River watershed and their interpretation to explore the factors responsible for the formation of the typical landforms. Objective interpretation of morphometric data of badlands with the help of statistical Pearson’s correlation coefficient (PCC) and dendrogram cluster may be made to emphasize the controlling factors. The morphometric parameters like the total number of streams (Nu), bifurcation ratio (Rb), drainage density (Dd), drainage frequency (Fs), drainage texture (Dt), and infiltration number (If) and their correlation in the study area plays a significant role in the advancement of rills and gullies. In the present area, the total number of streams (Nu) is very significantly related with the lengths of the first-order (L1), the second-order (L2), and the third-order streams (L3) along with the total stream length of all orders (Lu) in the third-order and the fourth-order sub-watersheds. Bifurcation ratio (Rb) is strongly correlated with L1, L2, L3, L4, and drainage texture (Dt) in the fourth-order sub-watershed. These correlations insinuate a tectonic influence in the basin and show an ultrafine drainage texture that ultimately forms badland topography. The relation between Dd-Lg-C-If-Rn produces a self-enhancing system of badland development, which promotes erosion in the area under study. These correlations provide a well-figured observation of the sub-watershed that, due to the increase in infiltration number (If), the drainage density (Dd) also increases, which leads to enhancement of channel cutting and erosion rates (low Lg and C value). This correlation coefficient of Rn is moderately low, indicating a single storey type of badlands. The badlands seem to have formed owing to setting up of self-enhancing erosive system on paleo wetlands, as evidenced by the presence of calcretes. Calcretes have been related to the presence of wetlands’ conditions. These have been related to fall in water levels, therefore, indicating much higher water levels nearly close to ground surfaces before setting up badlands conditions. Thus, the badlands which have shallow calcretes horizons can be said to have been wetlands in the past.

Remote sensing and GIS techniques have been increasingly used in characterization of drainage basin and prioritization of erosion prone watershed. This study uses remote sensing and GIS to characterise drainage basin morphometry and prioritize soil erosion prone sub watershed in the Lamurde watershed in Taraba state Nigeria. The study adopted standard formulae and methods to compute the morphometric parameters. The Lamurde watershed was delineated to fifteen sub-watersheds with each coded as WS1 to WS15. The result of the findings reveals that Lamurde watershed has a dendritic to sub-dendritic drainage pattern with the smaller streams intersecting the main trunk at acute angles. The findings reveal that Lamurde is a ninth order stream with total area of 1,458.66 km2 and a perimeter of 395.93 km. The basin also has 258,493 total number of streams. The main soil types in the Lamurde basin are fluvisol, lithosol, ferric luvisols and humic nitosols. The surface soil texture of the area is mainly loamy type and particle size classes are fine loamy type. Depth of soil varies from shallow to very deep and having parent material derived from sandstones, mudstones and shales. The findings of the study reveals that watershed: WS7, WS8, WS5, WS11, WS15, WS14, WS2 and WS6 in ascending order are very highly vulnerable to soil erosion. Despite inherent limitation in the use of morphometric parameters to prioritize erosion prone sub watersheds, it is most suitable in the present circumstances because of inadequate information and lack of functional measurement station in the basin, since they have more stable and accessible data on which prioritization of the watersheds can be based on. This study contributes to the problem of dearth of information regarding the susceptibility to erosion in the Lamurde River Basin in Taraba State Nigeria. Based on this findings, these sub watersheds should be given higher priority on any soil conservation intervention measures in the study area. This will go a long way to help address the problem of soil erosion in the area.

Morphometric analysis of Halda River basin, Bangladesh, using GIS and remote sensing techniques

Flash flood susceptibility assessment using the parameters of drainage basin morphometry in SE Bangladesh

Abstract. Morphometric analysis is the measurement and mathematical analysis of the landforms. The delineation of drainage system is of utmost importance in understanding hydrological system of an area, water resource management and it's planning in an effective manner. Morphometric analysis and land use change detection of two sub-watersheds namely Kukar Suha and Ratewal of district Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar, Punjab, India was carried out for quantitative description of drainage and characterisation. The stream order, stream number, stream length, mean stream length, and other morphometric analysis like bifurcation ratio, drainage density, texture, relief ratio, ruggedness number etc. were measured. The drainage pattern of Kukar Suha and Ratewal is mainly dendritic. The agriculture and settlements came up along the drainage network causes the pattern disturbance in the watershed. The study was undertaken to spotlight the morphometric parameters, their impact on the basin and the land use land cover changes occurred over the period of time. Morphometric parameters such as linear aspect, areal aspect and relief aspect of the watershed are computed. The land use/land cover change was extracted from LISS IV Mx + Cartosat1 PAN data. ASTER data is used to prepare DEM (digital elevation model) and geographical information system (GIS) was used to evaluate various morphometric parameters in ArcGIS10 software.

Spiti river basin is located in the north-eastern part of Himachal Pradesh, India. The Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), 2011 has been used in the present study. Three different basins have been delineated by using hydrological tool given in the ArcGIS 10.1. They are named as Spiti, Tsarap Chu and Parechu basins with an area of 5419, 781 and 651 sq. km, respectively. The morphometric parameters of all the three sub-basins have been calculated. ArcGIS 10.1 software was used for delineation and computation of drainage parameters and also for generating map layout. All the morphometric parameters of Spiti river basin provide an important information about drainage density, stream frequency, soil texture, slope aspect, drainage pattern, type of relief, stream order and the total number of streams. Morphometric analysis of the study area of all the three sub-basins represents sub-dendritic to dendritic drainage pattern with moderate to very fine drainage texture. The bifurcation ratio of all three basins indicates normal basin category and presence of low drainage density suggesting that the region has highly permeable sub-soil.

According to the Water Framework Directive 2000/60 EC, the river basin is the basic unit for integrated water management at the basin level. In this sense, the knowledge of the morphometric parameters of the river takes on special importance. Morphometric analysis helps in understanding the geo-hydrological characteristics of a river basin. Various authors point out that the morphometric analyses of a drainage watershed demonstrate the dynamic equilibrium that has been achieved due to the interaction between matter and energy. The analysis of morphometric parameters also facilitates and helps to understand the hydrological relations of the basin. This paper deals with the morphometric analysis of sub-basins in the Klina River basin which is located in the northeastern part of the Dukagjini depression. To determine the morphometric parameters in the Klina River basin, the digital relief model from the Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS) platform with a resolution of 20 × 20 m and the ArcMap 10.5 software were used. The results reveal that the total number of streams is 753 of which 602 are 1st order streams, 119 – 2nd order, 23 – 3rd order, 6 – 4th order, 2 – 5th order, and 1 – 6th order streams. The mean bifurcation ratio is 3.81, drainage density is 1.52 km∙km–2. The data and information presented in this study will be helpful and interesting in the plan of the management of Klina River basin which covers an area of 477 km2 within which is estimated to live about 100,000 inhabitants.

Flood is an extreme environmental threat amongst the natural hazards that affects the livelihood of millions of people across the world, especially in the flood plains and deltas. The conservation measures should be implemented to prevent the unlikely loss based on the physical, socio-economic, and cultural characteristics of a region. The present paper aims to analyze the morphometric parameters, and therefore, to find out the prioritization of the sub-watersheds of the Gumani River Basin (GRB) to induce flood hazards in the study area. The study area having an area of ~1307 km2 is divided into 34 sub-watersheds. The Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) (30 m) and Survey of India (SoI) topographical maps (1:50,000) have been used to delineate the sub-watersheds and assess the morphometric parameters. The two linear (stream order and mean bifurcation ratio), seven areal (form factor, elongation ratio, circularity index, drainage texture, stream frequency, drainage density, and compactness coefficient), and five relief (basin relief, relief ratio, ruggedness number, slope, and hypsometric integral) aspects have been measured in this study. The relative weights of the sub-watersheds have been calculated using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) which ranks the alternative based on the closest distance to the ideal solution and the farthest distance to the negative ideal solution. The produced performance score of the sub-watersheds has been categorized into five classes such as very low (0.36–0.39), low (0.39–0.44), moderate (0.44–0.49), high (0.49–0.55), and very high (0.55–0.73). The very low class includes the five sub-basins, while the very high class consists of the three sub-basins. The low priority class is confined to the twelve sub-basins, while the high class encompasses the five sub-basins. The medium class includes the ten sub-basins of GRB. The present study would address the micro-level planning and development activity of the study area.KeywordsMicro-level planningSub-watershedsFlood hazardsRelative weightsBasin morphometry

The present paper deals with drainage morphometric investigation of Nimni watershed, Chhatarpur District, Madhya Pradesh, India. A morphometric analysis of the Nimni watershed has been carried out to characterize the nature of drainage network. The linear, areal and relief aspects of the drainage basin have been determined. The morphometric parameters have been computed on the basis of drainage map prepared on 1:50,000 scale. These parameters includes Stream order, Lengths of stream, Bifurcation ratio, Drainage density, Length of overland flow, Stream frequency, Form factor, Circulatory ratio, Elongation ratio, Lemniscate’s ratio, Basin relief, Relief ratio, Ruggedness number and Ground surface slope. The drainage area of the Nimni watershed is 98 km2. The stream order of the basin is mainly controlled by physiographic and lithological conditions of the area. The increase in stream length ratio from lower to higher order shows that the study area has reached a mature geomorphic stage. The geomorphic analysis of Nimni watershed reveals that the present drainage basin exhibits uneven topography, presence of hard rock terrain and dendritic to sub-dendritic drainage pattern. The dendritic drainage pattern exhibits the presence of hard and resistant rocks referable to Bundelkhand Granite Complex.

In present study Kansa watershed in Satara district of Maharashtra was characterized for watershed parameters. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and a high-resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) has been utilized for the estimation of morphological parameters. Several morphometric parameters have been computed and analyzed viz. linear aspects such as stream order, stream number, stream length, mean stream length, stream length ratio; areal aspects such as drainage density, stream frequency, drainage texture, elongation ratio, circularity ratio, form factor, constant of channel maintenance; relief aspects such as relief, relief ratio, relative relief, ruggedness number, length of overland flow. Impacts of morphometric parameters on flash flood characteristics have also been investigated. The presence of the maximum number of the first order segments shows that the basin is subjected to erosion and also that some areas of the basin are characterized by variations in lithology and topography. The form factor is 0.21, and the circulatory ratio is 0.42, which suggests an elongated type of catchment. Elongation ratio is 0.52, which indicates that watershed has high relief and steep slope. The estimated catchment characteristics may be useful to stimulate hydrological responses of the catchment.