Drainage Network Extraction Research Articles

Basin-scale high-resolution extraction of drainage networks using 10-m Sentinel-2 imagery

Extraction of drainage networks is an important element of river flow routing in hydrology and large-scale estimates of river behaviors in Earth sciences. Emerging studies with a focus on greenhouse gases reveal that small rivers can contribute to more than half of the global carbon emissions from inland waters (including lakes and wetlands). However, large-scale extraction of drainage networks is constrained by the coarse resolution of observational data and models, which hinders assessments of terrestrial hydrological and biogeochemical cycles. Recognizing that Sentinel-2 satellite can detect surface water up to a 10-m resolution over large scales, we propose a new method named Remote Sensing Stream Burning (RSSB) to integrate high-resolution observational flow location with coarse topography to improve the extraction of drainage network. In RSSB, satellite-derived input is integrated in a spatially continuous manner, producing a quasi-bathymetry map where relative relief is enforced, enabling a fine-grained, accurate, and multitemporal extraction of drainage network. RSSB was applied to the Lancang-Mekong River basin to derive a 10-m resolution drainage network, with a significant reduction in location errors as validated by the river centerline measurements. The high-resolution extraction resulted in a realistic representation of meanders and detailed network connections. Further, RSSB enabled a multitemporal extraction of river networks during wet/dry seasons and before/after the formation of new channels. The proposed method is fully automated, meaning that the network extraction preserves basin-wide connectivity without requiring any postprocessing, hence facilitating the construction of drainage networks data with openly accessible imagery. The RSSB method provides a basis for the accurate representation of drainage networks that maintains channel connectivity, allows a more realistic inclusion of small rivers and streams, and enables a greater understanding of complex but active exchange between inland water and other related Earth system components.

Application of remote sensing and GIS technology for identification and development of management scenario of critical agricultural watershed

Management of watershed encompasses various activities from watershed delineation to monitoring. The suitability of land for development is not only based on a set of physical parameters (geography/terrain, soils, slopes etc.) of the land but also very much on the economic factors. The cumulative effect of these factors determine the degree of suitability and also helps in further categorization of land into different priority orders for development. The development of new advanced techniques in Spatial Information such as remote sensing and GIS are effectively used for the extraction of information about spatial features. DEM (Digital Elevation Model) is one of the important sources in extraction of drainage network and is useful for determining the quantitative description of catchment geometry i.e. morphometric analysis. Morphometric analysis has been commonly applied to prioritization of watersheds. In this study, the morphometric analysis and prioritization of seventeen Sub-watersheds of Maniari watershed, situated in Lormi block of Mungeli District Chhattisgarh State, India, was studied. For prioritization of sub-watersheds, morphometric analysis was utilized by using the Linear parameters such as Stream order, Stream length, Stream length ratio, Basin length, Bifurcation ratio (2.33 to 4.81), Drainage density (1.04 to 4.35), Stream frequency (0.17 to 6.69), Texture ratio (0.19 to 13.44), Length of overland flow (0.52 to 2.27) and Shape parameters such as Form factor (0.31 to 0.35), Shape factor (2.84 to 3.27), Circulatory ratio, Elongation ratio (0.62 to 0.67), and Compactness constant (1.20 to 2.33). The different prioritization ranks are assigned after evaluation of the compound factor. It was considered as high priority for adopting conservation measure as well. The suitable locations for conservation measure structures in highly prioritized sub-watersheds were also identified for the appropriate land and water management plane. The relevance of work shows the appropriate measure structure locations for preventing the soil from getting eroded from the highly prioritized sub-watershed.

A new method of drainage network extraction using SAR radar images: a case study of Djanet (Algeria)

An oriented, connected, acyclic graph can be used to represent a hydraulic network. We can consider the network as a set of arcs and nodes. Our research work entails extracting a drainage network from satellite images by preprocessing the data to have features that will compute the minimum cost function. In this paper, we propose an approach to obtain a drainage network based on information theory and mathematical morphology. Our idea is to consider a drainage network as a set of segments crossed two by two in a node. The best network segments minimize the variance calculated in the directions of propagation, maximize the covered geodesic distance, and are most rectilinear. To get results, we have applied these treatments: filtering, segmentation, minimization of a cost function and mathematical morphology operators. Our proposed approach gives excellent results of high quality and quantity. However, there are still some problems in this study, especially the choice of an adaptive index of linearity that differentiates the drainage network from the surrounding environment. Existing methods use a DEM to extract drainage networks, because they indicate networks where water circulates (3D topography). By contrast, in this study, we use images from ERS-1/2 satellites in order to exploit radar waves, thanks to their penetrating capacity and sensitivity to the dielectric and geometric properties of the land. The temporal and spatial resolutions of the SAR images also allow a historical monitoring of hydraulic networks because of the continual availability of SAR data.

The accuracy of drainage network delineation as a function of environmental factors: A case study in Central and Northern Sweden

AbstractDrainage networks delineated from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), are the basis for the modelling of geomorphological and hydrological processes, biogeochemical cycling, and water resources management. Besides providing effective models of water flows, automatically extracted drainage networks based on topography can diverge from reality to varying degrees. The variability of such disagreement within catchments has rarely been examined as a function of the heterogeneity of land cover, soil type, and slope in the catchment of interest. This research gap might not only substantially limit our knowledge of the uncertainty of hydrological prediction, but can also cause problems for users attempting to use the data at a local scale. Using 1:100000 scale land cover maps, Quaternary deposits maps, and 2 m resolution DEMs, it is found that the accuracy of delineated drainage networks tends to be lower in areas with denser vegetation, lower hydraulic conductivity, and higher erodibility. The findings of this study could serve as a guide for the more thoughtful usage of delineated drainage networks in environmental planning, and in the uncertainty analysis of hydrological and biochemical predictions. Therefore, this study makes a first attempt at filling the knowledge gap described above.

GIS-based approach for the measurement of variability in tectonomorphic signatures using DEM's data: a case study from the Habo Dome in the Kachchh area, India

The Kachchh region of western India is located in a plate interior region, but falls under one of the highest seismic zones of India, having very active crustal deformation and erosion. The drainage system, as well as the geomorphic evolution of the region under a semi-arid climate zone with high to very high strength of rocks in areas with high relief, is dominantly controlled by the seismic instability associated with continual tectonics. In the present paper, we have analysed a block close to the epicentre of the 2001 Bhuj earthquake to understand the role of relative active tectonics in the evolution of domal landscape morphology. Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission Digital Elevation Model data were used to extract drainage network in the GIS platform and evaluate active tectonics using different geomorphic indices of the Habo Hill, the second largest domal structure situated in Northern Hill Range of the Kachchh region. The average cumulative weightage of different geomorphic indices provides a quantitative tool, Index of Relative Active Tectonics (IRAT), which shows significant variations in and around the Habo Dome. Activation of earlier lineaments and generation of new lineaments controlled the morphometric evolution of the fault bound block of the region to form the Habo Dome. The undulating topography in addition to the domal shape of the study area resulted from the differential movements along several active transverse faults striking NE–SW, N–S, and NW–SE, and the regional faults striking E–W (the Kachchh Mainland Fault, the Kas Fault, and the Jikadi Fault). Stress propagations from the Himalayan range in the northeast and Suleiman range in the northwest are identified to be the causative factors for active tectonics and drainage anomalies in the area.

Modeling of groundwater potential using remotely sensed data within Akure metropolis, Ondo State, Southwestern Nigeria

Integrated investigations involving remote sensing and geology have been conducted with the aim of modeling groundwater potential zones within Akure metropolis, Ondo State, Southwestern Nigeria. Groundwater potential zones were delineated with the help of remote sensing and geology. Land sat imageries were used for land use/land cover mapping and lineament analysis for groundwater prospecting. Radar Digital Elevation Model was used for drainage network extraction, slope and geomorphological analysis. All the thematic maps were generated and analyzed in terms of hydrogeological importance and reclassified for integration using ArcGIS 10.5 software. The slope, landuse/landcover, drainage density, lineament density, geomorphology and geological maps generated were integrated with overlay weighted in ArcGIS environment. Suitable ranking and weighting factors were decided based on their capability to store groundwater. This procedure is repeated for all the other layers and resultant layers were reclassified. The groundwater potential zones are classified into five categories of very low, low, moderate, high and very high. The groundwater potential within Akure metropolis is rated as generally low.

DATA MINING APPLIED FOR DETERMINING STREAM FLOW PERMANENCE

Abstract. Streamflow permanence is an aspect of great legal importance in Brazil, because streams, depending on their flow regime, are protected or not by law. Various methods, from field methods to computational methods, are used to determine the flow regime of streams, however some are too time spending and computational methods usually need gaging information as input. Furthermore, computational methods used to extract drainage networks do not identify the flow regimes of streams, and modelled drainage networks always need to be refined manually, as some authors indicate that up to 55% of modelled drainage length is ephemeral in some cases. This work proposes a semi-automatic computational method to determine the flow regime of first order streams, which uses 11 morphometric attributes of the mini drainage basins of these streams to develop a classification model using decision tree algorithms. WEKA package was used to perform the data mining process, which resulted on the development of a compact 8 node decision tree. Ten-fold stratified cross-validation was used to validate the model, which obtained an accuracy rate of 70%. The drainage network of the study area extracted with the classical approach was refined after the result of the classification was obtained. Quantitative analysis of channel length by Strahler order shows an overall reduction of 25% in channel length after refinement was undertaken, and for 1st order streams, as much as 31% were classified as ephemeral. Modelling the drainage areas of headwater streams represents a new approach to determining stream flow permanence, and inclusion of new attributes in the model may yield better results in future research.

Morphometric analysis of the Jilledubanderu River Basin, Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India, using geospatial technologies

Morphometry is a tool to search for groundwater resources through the studies of various landforms and drainage system. The drainage pattern is an important prerequisite in evaluating the basin hydrology through the knowledge of morphometric parameters. The system of streaming wherein the water reaches the streams is dependent upon the morphometric characteristics of the basin. The extracted drainage network was classified according to Strahler's system and it reveals that the basin exhibits dendritic to sub-dendritic drainage pattern. The Jilledubanderu River Basin is sprawled over an area of 486.95 km2 and forms a part of the Chitravathi River system. The study area is designated as sixth-order basin and lower order streams mostly dominate the basin with the average drainage density of 1.96 km/km2. The slope of basin varies from 0° to >35° and the slope variation is chiefly controlled by the local geology and erosion cycles. The elongation ratio value is 0.66 indicating the basin has elongated shape with moderate relief and steep slopes. The drainage texture of the basin is 5.69 which indicate an intermediate texture that exists over the region. Hence, from the study, it can be concluded that remote sensing data (SRTM–DEM) coupled with geospatial techniques prove to be a competent tool in morphometric analysis and the data can be used for basin management and other hydrological studies in future.

Drainage network extraction and morphometric analysis in an Iranian basin using integrating factor analysis and geospatial techniques

The application of multivariate statistical analysis (MSA) in analyzing drainage basin morphometry, in conjunction with seismic events (focal mechanism) and associated tectonic influences, has been discussed less in the framework of existing geomorphometric studies. Hence, in this study, an integrated approach was designed combining the geomorphometric analysis with MSA, focal mechanism and associated structural lineaments (using a remote sensing and GIS framework) to address the role of active tectonism on the drainage network characteristics in Qorveh-Dehgolan basin located in western part of Iran (Kurdistan province). Eight watersheds were delineated from burnt ASTER DEM using SWAT model and categorized into high-altitude watersheds and low-altitude watersheds. Four-sets of the drainage network were extracted from satellite imageries (Landsat 7 and 8) over a period of 17 years (2000–2017) to monitor the temporal stream network behavior. Overall, nineteen morphometric parameters were calculated (and categorized into linear, aerial, and relief aspects) exhibiting significant changes in the drainage network from 2000 to 2017 (the stream order declined from 5th to 4th order). The higher-altitude watersheds showed various anomalies in the calculated indices (indicating the potential influence of tectonic activity), while the lower altitude watersheds did not exhibit any specific anomalies. In addition, higher concentration of longer lineaments was observed in areas where the relatively resistant, fractured bedrock lithology (meta-volcanic and meta-sedimentary rocks) provided favorable conditions for origin and propagation of the lineaments. Further analysis of focal mechanism solutions (FMS, beachball diagrams) showed that the study area is primarily influenced by moderate earthquake events (3 ≤ Mw ≤ 6) and is influenced by a complex fault mechanism (primarily normal faults and strike slip faults). The morphometric parameters were further subjected to the factor analysis (principal axis factoring using Varimax rotation transformation) resulting in derivation of “factor of basin magnitude”, “factor of steepness” and “factor of texture” as three principal factors impacting the drainage network. Finally, it was concluded that “factor of steepness” played a decisive role in defining hydrology of higher-altitude watersheds (an indication of tectonic influences in these watersheds) and thereby defining the overall hydrology of the study area as well. Overall, this study highlighted the significant role of the tectonic activity associated with structural lineaments and the seismic events in defining the nature and behavior of the drainage network and certain anomalies caused in the basin hydrology under these structural controls.

A D8-compatible high-efficient channel head recognition method

As the resolution of DEMs is becoming higher, both the efficiency and accuracy of channel head recognition are important for drainage network extraction. In this paper, a D8-compatible high-efficient channel head recognition method is proposed. For each potential channel, this method first calculates a geomorphologic parameter series along the flow path, and then determines the channel head by detecting the change point in the series. Instead of directly using one threshold value for a whole region that is still commonly used in D8-based methods, the proposed method recognizes channel heads by their local geomorphology one by one. The proposed method is applied with high resolution DEMs for different terrains, and the identified channel heads and extracted drainage networks show good agreement with observations. In comparison with a popular software with state-of-the-art channel head recognition method, the proposed one shows similar accuracy but much higher computational efficiency.

Production of a Curve Number map using GIS Techniques in the watershed of the high Sebou (Morocco)

This work focusing on the collection and preparation of necessary data for hydrological modeling of High Sebou watershedupstream of the dam Allal El Fassi. It describes a methodology for combining space technologies, including geographical information systems (GIS), remote sensing and digital terrain models (DTM), with hydrological models with a view to prepare for a spatial hydrologic modeling whose used for flood forecasting. The methodology for conducting this study comes in several parts: The collection and processing of geographic data constituted the first part of this project. This approach is, in the beginning, to automatic extraction of sub-basins and drainage network, then the formatting of data for the mapping of the basin and finally, the preparation of the land use and soil for the development of a map of Curve Number (CN).

Morphometric network drainage analysis for railway location: case study of Saudi Railway Company’s project

To determine the suitability of a railway line’s location, morphometric network drainage analysis and a high-resolution digital elevation model (10 m) were used. This study was performed using the geoprocessing techniques of GIS. The extracted drainage network was classified according to the Strahler’s system of classification to study the suitability of railway tracks’ location via the project of Saudi Railway Company (SAR) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Moreover, culvert locations were examined by using existing network drainage locations. The results indicated that some culverts are not suitable to serve during floods, and two specific culverts of the SAR project should be relocated. Map algebra was used in this research to calculate the suitability, and the results show existing railways crossing two less suitable areas.

Automated Extraction of Drainage Channels and Roads through Deep Learning

Abstract. The National Map provides geospatial data that support various uses such as resource management, disaster response, and science investigations. To properly support these needs, data themes of the National Map must be regularly updated and spatially integrated as the features on the ground change because of environmental or man-made events. The elevation theme of the National Map is managed through the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), which is currently (2019) coordinating collection of high resolution (HR) elevation data for the United States over an eight-year period (Sugarbaker et al. 2014). Through this program, lidar point-cloud data are being collected for the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and U.S. territories, with coarser resolution interferometric synthetic aperture radar (ifsar) data being collected for the remote areas of Alaska. HR digital elevation models (DEMs) can be generated at 1 and 3 meter resolution from the lidar point-cloud data and are also furnished by 3DEP.This research develops automated methods to update the hydrography and transportation themes of the National Map in a manner that integrates with the HR elevation and image layers. Surface water drainage networks can be extracted from a HR DEM using flow-direction and flow-accumulation modelling, but results of these methods vary depending on environmental conditions and the existence of anthropogenic features that may affect the accuracy of the elevation model, such as vegetative cover, roads, bridges, and other urban structures. Hydrologic conditioning or enforcement of a HR DEM overcome some of these issues and improve flow modelling for drainage network extraction through techniques such as filtering (Passalaqua et al. 2010), filling sinks (Tarboton 1997), cutting channels through embankments at culvert and bridge locations (Poppenga et al. 2012), or burning-in existing streams (Maidment 1996). However, drainage network extraction results can vary substantially with these techniques and the methods generally require some manual intervention and/or tuning of parameters (Poppenga et al. 2013). Consequently, additional work is needed to streamline and further automate such methods for the various landscape conditions within the United States.

High-efficient extraction of drainage networks from digital elevation models constrained by enhanced flow enforcement from known river maps

Drainage network extraction plays an important role in geomorphologic analyses, hydrologic modeling, and non-point source pollutant simulation, among others. Flow enforcement, by imposing information of known river maps to digital elevation models (DEMs), leads to improved drainage network extraction. However, the existing flow enforcement methods (e.g., the elevation-based stream-burning method) have certain limitations, as they may cause unreal longitudinal profiles, lead to unintended topological errors, and even misinterpret the overall drainage patterns. The present study proposes an enhanced flow enforcement method without elevation modification towards an accurate and efficient drainage network extraction. In addition to preserving the Boolean-value information as to whether a DEM pixel belongs to a stream, the proposed method can also well preserve and fully utilize the topological relations among mapped streamlines and morphological information of each mapped streamline. The method involves two important steps: (1) proposal of an improved rasterization algorithm of mapped streamlines to yield continuous, unambiguous, and collision-free raster equivalent of stream vectors for flow enforcement; and (2) realization of the enhanced flow enforcement in a modified Priority-Flood procedure –– in this way, flows are enforced to completely follow the mapped streamlines, and hence, channel short-circuits and spurious confluences of adjacent streams are avoided. An efficient implementation of the method is made based on a size-balanced binary search tree. The method is also tested over the Rogue River Basin in the United States, using DEMs with various resolutions. Visual and statistical analyses of the results indicate three major advantages of the proposed method: (1) significant reduction in the misinterpretation of drainage patterns; (2) maximum channel displacement of one pixel to the river map at various resolutions; and (3) high computational efficiency.

Use of remote sensing and GIS techniques for groundwater exploration in the basement complex terrain of Ado-Ekiti, SW Nigeria

Integrated investigations involving remote sensing and GIS have been conducted with the objective of achieving optimal results in sustainable groundwater development in Ado-Ekiti, south-western Nigeria. The hard rock terrain in the region presents challenges in groundwater exploration. Landsat imageries were used for landuse/landcover mapping and lineament analysis for groundwater prospecting. Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission Digital Elevation Model was used for drainage network extraction, slope and geomorphological analysis. Thematic maps were generated, analysed in terms of hydrogeological importance and reclassified for integration using appropriate software. The groundwater potential maps generated were validated against the existing groundwater yield data. The light vegetation and bare soil area cover was 110.9 km2, with the rock outcrops covering a total area of 14.9 km2. Hydrogeomorphic units delineated included hills, pediments, pediplains, alluvium and valley fills. The lineaments showed predominantly NNW–SSE, ENE–WSW and NNE–SSW orientations and subsidiary NW–SE and W–E trends. Application of geospatial techniques has been recognized. The methodology provides improvements in the understanding of the hydrogeological characteristics of the basement terrain. These will aid planning and management of groundwater resources in the crystalline basement terrain.

Delineation of Drainage Network and Estimation of Total Discharge using Digital Elevation Model (DEM).

The rapid urbanization and the population growth, have increased the demands of fresh water to manage various tasks from domestic to industrial scales. Various man driven sectors such as agriculture, industry and water filtration plants, require fresh water to cater the need of increasing population. Therefore, the management of available fresh water reservoirs is of great importance to save water for a sustainable future “save water save life”. Digital elevation model (DEM) is efficient to extract the drainage network, basin boundaries and to evaluate the volume of fresh water available in study site. We used Arc hydro tools in Arc GIS interface for extraction of drainage network in the study site. Flow direction and accumulation were computed according to Z-value of individual pixel available in the raster grid. A total 127 streams were extracted against 127 catchments. We observed that the catchments bearing steep slopes were incised in comparison to gentle slopes which were mostly eroded. We evaluated the total discharge in cusec using Q=CIA, where the coefficient ‘C’ of rainfall was substituted as 0.76 for each catchment having rocky soil type. The total discharge was estimated as 10871 cusec. GIS tools proved efficient to map watershed in the study site.

Delineation of Drainage Network and Estimation of Total Discharge using Digital Elevation Model (DEM)

The rapid urbanization and the population growth, have increased the demands of fresh water to manage various tasks from domestic to industrial scales. Various man driven sectors such as agriculture, industry and water filtration plants, require fresh water to cater the need of increasing population. Therefore, the management of available fresh water reservoirs is of great importance to save water for a sustainable future “save water save life”. Digital elevation model (DEM) is efficient to extract the drainage network, basin boundaries and to evaluate the volume of fresh water available in study site. We used Arc hydro tools in Arc GIS interface for extraction of drainage network in the study site. Flow direction and accumulation were computed according to Z-value of individual pixel available in the raster grid. A total 127 streams were extracted against 127 catchments. We observed that the catchments bearing steep slopes were incised in comparison to gentle slopes which were mostly eroded. We evaluated the total discharge in cusec using Q=CIA, where the coefficient ‘C’ of rainfall was substituted as 0.76 for each catchment having rocky soil type. The total discharge was estimated as 10871 cusec. GIS tools proved efficient to map watershed in the study site.

Flood hazard assessment of upper Jhelum basin using morphometric parameters

Morphometric parameters can be useful tools to provide general understanding of physical characteristics of drainage basin with respect to floods. To evaluate the flood influencing factors in the upper Jhelum basin, we delineate the upper Jhelum basin into ten sub-basins, followed by extraction of drainage network and morphometric parameters using Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer digital elevation model and topographic maps in Geographic Information System. The overall flood potential was determined on the basis of compound value obtained for all morphometric parameters of each sub-basin. The analysis reveals that, in general, the northeastern segment of the upper Jhelum basin reveals comparative higher flood potential than the southwestern segment. The tributaries, such as Lidder, Veshav, Arapal, Arapat, and Bring, exhibit greater potential to produce peak flows during rainfall events, while the tributaries like Dudhganga, Rambiara, Sandran, Romushi, and Sasara express moderate-to-low flood potential, respectively. The results of this study are likely to be very useful for effective flood hazard mitigation in upper Jhelum floodplain.

Sub watershed characterization and prioritization using geoinformatics for natural resources management

The development of new advanced techniques in Spatial Information such as remote sensing and GIS are effectively used for the extraction of information about spatial features. DEM (Digital Elevation Model) is one of the important sources in extraction of drainage network and is useful for determining the quantitative description of catchment geometry i.e. morphometric analysis. Morphometric analysis has been commonly applied to prioritization of watersheds. In this study, the morphometric analysis and prioritization of seventeen Sub-watersheds of Maniari watershed, situated in Lormi block of Mungeli District Chhattisgarh State, India, was carried out. For prioritization of sub-watersheds, morphometric analysis was performed using the Linear parameters such as stream order, stream length, stream length ratio, basin length, bifurcation ratio, mean bifurcation ratio, drainage density, stream frequency, texture ratio, length of overland flow and shape parameters such as form factor, shape factor, circulatory ratio, elongation ratio, and compactness constant. The different prioritization ranks are assigned after evaluation of the compound factor. Based on the various physical characteristics of the basin, multi-criteria evaluation technique has been used to determine the most suitable water harvesting structure sites. For this purpose hydrologic soil group, slope and stream order data derived. This study confirms about 93 locations classified under the category of highly suitable sites. This mapping helps in selecting potential site for water harvesting structure.

Flash flood susceptibility modeling using geo-morphometric and hydrological approaches in Panjkora Basin, Eastern Hindu Kush, Pakistan

This main objective of this study is flash flood susceptibility modeling using geo-morphometric and hydrological approaches in Panjkora Basin, Eastern Hindu Kush, Pakistan. In the study region, flash flood is one of the horrific and recurrent hydro-meteorological disasters causing damages to human life, their properties, and infrastructure. Watershed modeling approach is implemented to delineate Panjkora Basin, its sub-basins, and extract drainage network by utilizing Advance Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Digital Elevation Model as an input data in geographic information system environment. A total of 30 sub-basins were delineated using threshold of 25 km2. The geo-morphometric parameters of each sub-basin were computed by applying Hortonian, Schumm, and Strahler Geo-morphological laws. The value of each parameter was normalized and aggregated into geo-morphometric ranking number depicting the degree of flash flood susceptibility. Surface run-off depth of each sub-basin is estimated by applying Natural Resource Conservation Service Curve Number hydrological model. Both models outputs were integrated by implementing weighted overlay analysis technique and susceptibility map is obtained. The resultant map was analyzed and zonated into very high, high, moderate, low, and very low flash flood susceptibility zones. These zones were spread over an area of 1441 km2 (27%), 1950 km2 (36.5%), 1252 km2 (23.4%), 604 km2 (11.3%), and 98 km2 (1.8%), respectively. Spatially, the very high susceptible zone is located in the upstream areas, characterized by snow covered peaks, steep gradient (> 30°), and high drainage density (> 1.7 km/km2), and geologically dominated by igneous and metamorphic lithological units. Analysis indicated that flash flood susceptibility is directly increases with increasing surface run-off and geo-morphometric ranking number. A new model is developed to geo-visualize the spatial pattern of flash flood susceptibility. Accuracy of the model is assessed using global positioning system-based primary data regarding past-flood damages and flood marks. The study results can facilitate Disaster Management Authorities and flood dealing line agencies to initiate location-specific flood-risk reduction strategies in highly susceptible areas of Panjkora Basin. Similarly, this methodological approach can be adapted for any highland river system.