Sinuosity of Meandering Channels in Upper Krishna River Basin, India

Abstract

Krishna River is one of the important drainage systems in South India. Krishna River and its tributaries, like Panchganaga and Dudhaganaga Rivers, show a meandering planform morphology. The Krishna River and its tributaries originate in the high rainfall region of Western Ghat. Flood discharge conditions of these channels cause change in channel morphology like the formation of chute channels or cut-off processes. To understand the cut-off channel formation, hydraulic and topographic sinuosity of channel segments were calculated. To this end, three segments of each channel were considered first, before meander, second at the meander and third after the meander of the channel were calculated. It is observed that when the hydraulic sinuosity is greater than the topographical sinuosity, chute channels are formed in the upper Krishna Basin.