Role of Channel Migration and Influencing Hydro-Geomorphic Attributes in Dibru River Basin Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Abstract

The action of the river is dynamic and exhibits morphological changes over time. River channel migration may take place because of sedimentation, geology, soil properties, geomorphic setup, precipitation, land use pattern, natural bank geometry (e.g., channel width, meander length, meander wavelength, amplitude, the radius of curvature, arc angle, and sinuosity), discharges of various frequencies (Brice 1982, MacDonald et al. 1991, Garcia et al. 1994), distribution of riparian vegetation, and vertical and horizontal heterogeneity of floodplain soils (Motta et al. 2012), etc. are some factors for channel migration. The present study is undertaken in the Dibru River Basin, the left-bank tributary of the Brahmaputra River. To identify the Spatio-temporal changes, satellite imagery is used in the GIS environment. The extraction of the river is done from the GIS software (Arc GIS 10.4) by digitizing process and tries to overlay the different time periods of shifting of the river and find out the rate of magnitude and nature of the river course changes. An interval of 10 years is taken to find the rate of magnitude and nature of changes in the river courses from satellite imagery. The time period is taken from 1977-2020 at 10 years intervals. Along with the rate of river course changes, channel avulsion is also shown with the help of satellite imagery. The Dibru Saikhowa National Park falls within the Dibru river basin, where numerous streams are found, within the national park. The Saikhoa river and Ajuka river flow within the national park. The Sursa river is a small channel linked with the Dangori river. With phases of time, the river made a headward erosion and confluence with the Ajuka river and formed a channel. The Saikhoa river flowed till 1987; due to deposition, the river abandoned its original course. In 1988, the Ajuka river and Sursa river merged and flowed northwest direction. The high discharges of the Lohit river diverted towards the Ajuka and Sursa Rivers and took a new channel named the Lower course of Lohit river within the study area. It can be called an avulsion channel because it changed its direction from its original to a new course in 1990. Since 1990, the course of the channel has been tremendously expanding its length and breadth, causing a flood, bank erosion, and deposition nearby human habitats and Dibru Saikhowa National Park. From the multi-temporal satellite imagery, the river courses were studied, and found the year of avulsion took place in the channel. Multi-temporal satellite imagery is used to identify the channel’s avulsion. An avulsion is the rapid separation of a river channel to form a new course, which is only possible due to flood, high discharge, soil properties or tectonic activity, etc. that creates instability and causes the channel avulsion.