morphometric analysis research paper

• Open access
• Published: 16 May 2022

Morphometric analysis for prioritizing sub-watersheds of Murredu River basin, Telangana State, India, using a geographical information system

• Padala Raja Shekar 1 &
• Aneesh Mathew 1  

Journal of Engineering and Applied Science volume  69 , Article number:  44 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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Metrics details

The Murredu watershed in Telangana State was chosen for the morphometric and land use/land cover (LULC) analysis in this current study. Geographical information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) techniques can estimate the morphometric features and LULC analysis of a catchment. A total of fourteen sub-watersheds (SWs) were created from the watershed (SW 1 to SW 14), and sub-watersheds were prioritized based on morphometric and LULC features. Evaluation of various morphometric characteristics such as linear aspects, relief aspects, and aerial aspects has been carried out for every sub-watershed to prefer ranking. Four parameters were utilized for the LULC analysis to rank and prioritize sub-watersheds. The sub-watersheds were categorized into three groups as low, medium, and high, for soil and water conservation priority based on morphometric and LULC analysis. Using morphometric analysis, higher priorities have been assigned to SW 12 and SW 1, while using LULC analysis, higher priorities have been assigned to SW 9 and SW 11. SW 10 and SW 13 are the most common sub-watersheds that fall within the same priority while using morphometric and LULC analysis. The coefficient of regression results reveals that stream length and stream order, and also stream number and stream order, have a strong association. The deployment of soil and water conservation measures may be conducted in the high-priority sub-watersheds.

Introduction

Morphometric characteristics are a mathematical and quantitative study of the Earth’s surface arrangement, as well as the shape and magnitude of its landforms [ 3 , 10 , 34 ]. A watershed is a section of land where rainwater contributes to a common location [ 11 ]. The study of watersheds is crucial for preventing soil erosion, conserving water, and ensuring long-term growth. Techniques like geographical information system (GIS) and remote sensing are powerful tools for analyzing the river basin’s hydraulic process [ 57 ].

The size, drainage, shape, and land use pattern of a watershed determine its classification. The many forms of watersheds are mini-watersheds (one to hundred hectares), micro-watersheds (hundred to thousand hectares), milli-watersheds (thousand to ten thousand hectares), sub-watersheds (ten thousand to fifty thousand hectares), and macro-watersheds (greater than fifty thousand hectares). Morphometric characteristics are a helpful process for analyzing watersheds as it shows the relationship among many features of a catchment like a stream order, stream length, etc. Watershed protection has drawn attention towards the safety of natural resources such as soil and water [ 14 ].

Various scientists have used traditional methods to analyze various watershed characteristics [ 13 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 45 , 50 , 52 , 53 , 54 ], and nowadays, remote sensing and GIS tools have been widely used for watershed analysis [ 2 , 7 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 21 , 32 , 36 , 37 , 41 , 43 , 44 , 47 , 49 , 51 , 58 ]. Morphometric characteristics provide a quantitative catchment report, which is valuable in studies like watershed prioritization, hydrologic modeling, natural resource conservation, etc. [ 49 ].

Extracting drainage features from the shuttle radar topography mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) has become a more popular, accurate, faster, and cost-effective way of conducting catchment studies [ 22 , 31 ]. Morphometric analysis is a quantitative catchment analysis that reveals the drainage features and development of soil erosion, surface runoff, groundwater infiltration capacity, groundwater potential, etc. [ 42 ].

A systematic analysis is essential for the configuration of a catchment, and its stream courses involve relief aspects, linear aspects, and aerial or shape aspects of the catchment [ 54 ]. Linear aspects involve the stream length, the number of streams, the bifurcation ratio, the mean stream length ratio, the stream frequency, the stream length ratio, the stream density, the drainage texture, the drainage intensity, the length of the overland flow, and the RHO coefficient. Relief features contain watershed relief, relief ratio, relief relative, ruggedness number, maximum elevation, and minimum elevation. Also, the areal features consist of circulation ratio, watershed area, perimeter, form factor ratio, basin length, elongation ratio, lemniscate ratio, and compactness coefficient [ 54 ].

According to scientific studies, morphometric features of a river basin play a significant role in prioritizing sub-watersheds [ 24 ]. Sediments, nutrients, and pollutants will be deposited and collected by the water flowing into and out of the basin [ 35 ]. They can have a significant impact on the river basin’s onsite and offsite ecosystem. As a result, studying the drainage basin process has the potential to help for a better understanding of how water moves through the hydrologic cycle. Implementing watershed management is crucial for achieving sustainable land and water resource use, as well as mitigating increasing pollutants’ impacts [ 18 , 40 , 38 ]. For the present study, the most relevant quantitative morphometric characteristics have been chosen and applied. Morphometric characteristics can be divided into three categories such as linear, relief, and areal aspects. These have been utilized to prioritize more susceptible sub-watersheds since they have a direct or indirect relationship with peak flow, runoff, and soil erosion hazards [ 33 , 18 , 48 , 46 , 41 ].

The status of the catchment’s land use/land cover (LULC) is another crucial factor to consider when prioritizing sub-watersheds [ 18 , 19 , 39 ]. The most influential factor and indicator of environmental degradation, including a catchment, is LULC changes. Several researchers have explored and used LULC analysis in catchment prioritizing [ 25 , 55 ]. Increased slope gradient irregularly enhanced soil erosion rates under various LULC scenarios, which were determined to be greatest at a particular critical degree of slope [ 59 ]. Changes in the catchment’s LULC have been recognized as the principal cause of environmental change, resulting in accelerated soil erosion, and are primarily anthropogenic [ 25 ]. RS and GIS techniques can represent various LULC categories through classification procedures [ 1 , 9 , 12 , 15 , 20 , 23 , 26 , 29 , 56 ]. RS and GIS techniques have been used in catchment prioritizing [ 28 ], which is a basic prerequisite for planners and policymakers to design management schemes that consider the immensity of the catchment area [ 19 ].

The objectives of the current study are to prioritize sub-watersheds depending on the morphometric characteristics of each sub-watersheds and also to prioritize sub-watersheds using LULC analysis of each sub-watersheds. Also, the study aims to locate the most common sub-watersheds that fall within the same priority by utilizing both morphometric and LULC analyses.

Murredu catchment is located in Telangana State. Murredu River is the sub-tributary of the Godavari River, as shown in Fig. 1 . Murredu watershed is located between longitudes 80° 20′ 0′′ and 80° 50′ 0′′ East and latitudes 17° 10′ 0′′ and 17° 50′ 0′′ North. It has a total area of 1593.33 km 2 . The hottest months of the year are usually March to June. The watershed’s rainy season is from July to September. In November, the weather turns cool and stays that way until February. The monsoon arrives in June and lasts until September. The Murredu River basin’s altitude ranges from 57 to 784 m above sea level, according to the SRTM digital elevation model.

Geographical map of the Murredu River basin

According to the World Geologic Maps of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the study area has two types of significant rocks. Lower Triassic to Upper Carboniferous and undivided Precambrian are the geological age of two rocks. Sedimentary (Lower Triassic to Upper Carboniferous) and metamorphic rocks (undivided Precambrian) are the type of rocks that were observed in the research area. The undivided Precambrian-Metamorphic Rock occupies the majority of the current study’s area. The drainage pattern of the catchment is dendritic to sub-dendritic. The geological and drainage network of the study area is shown in Fig. 2 .

Geological and drainage network of the study area

The SRTM DEM was used for the watershed delineation in this current study. It can be downloaded from USGS Earth Explorer. DEM has a resolution of 30 m. The quantitative morphometric characteristics were performed to examine fourteen sub-watersheds of the Murredu catchment. Table 1 shows the data that was used in this research.

Figure 3 shows the processing of DEM, including fill, flow direction, flow accumulation, stream definition, stream to features, etc. Using ArcGIS 10.4.1 software, sub-watersheds (SW 1 to SW 14) are categorized based on the length of the stream, stream order, stream number, etc. Three groups of morphometric features were studied and categorized; they were linear, relief aspect, and aerial aspect. These features are determined using various empirical methods shown in Table 2 . Linear parameters of the Murredu river basin (SW 1 to SW 14) were calculated and presented in Table 3 . After getting all the morphometric values, the next step is to find the rank of individual parameters in each sub-watershed. The sub-watershed having the maximum value in the relief and linear characteristics has been ranked as first, while the second maximum value has been ranked as second, the third maximum value has been ranked as third, and so on. The sub-watershed having the minimum value in the areal or shape characteristics has been ranked as first, while the second minimum value has been ranked as second, the third minimum value has been ranked as third, and so on. After getting all ranks for individual parameters in each sub-watershed, the next step is to find the compound parameter value for each sub-watershed. To arrive at the compound parameter value, all the ranks in SW1 are added together and divided by the number of characteristics (the present study area consists of 20 characteristics) and repeat the procedure for other sub-watersheds. Following the calculation of compound values, the sub-watersheds were categorized into three classes high, medium, and low. The high priority has been given to the sub-watersheds with the very low compound value, denoted by the number 1 (high). The medium priority has been given to the sub-watershed with the next low compound parameter value, denoted by the number 2 (medium). The low priority has been given to the sub-watershed with the lowest compound parameter value, denoted by the number 3 (low). The high priority signifies the sub-watershed having the highest risk of runoff, peak flow, and soil erosion [ 18 , 33 ].

Methodology of the morphometric analysis

Results and discussion

The quantitative morphometric measurements give information on the catchment’s hydrological features. There are fourteen sub-watersheds in the Murredu catchment. By examining multiple criteria like the basin’s linear aspect, aerial aspect, and relief aspect, the morphometric analysis was utilized to prioritize sub-watersheds (Murredu). The details of various parameters are discussed below.

Basic parameters of river basin

Area of the watershed (a).

The area of the watershed can directly reflect the overall volume of water. It is one of the important parameters because a watershed’s overall area is projected into the horizontal plane. It is denoted by “A.” The overall area of the watershed is 1593.33 km 2 . In the present study, the largest and smallest sub-watershed areas are 230.95 km 2 (SW 8) and 25.79 km 2 (SW 2), respectively.

The perimeter of a watershed (P)

Watershed’s outer boundary that encloses its area is defined as the watershed perimeter [ 21 ] and is designated by P . The total perimeter of the watershed is 314 km. Out of the fourteen Murredu basins, the largest and smallest sub-watershed perimeters are 164.32 km (SW 8) and 45.46 km (SW 9), respectively.

Watershed length (L b )

The major dimension among the essential parameters of the major drainage channel is the watershed length [ 33 ]. It is denoted by L b . In the current research, the longest length of the sub-watersheds is at SW 8 (and is 28.87 km), while the shortest is at SW 2 (8.31 km).

Relief (B h )

Catchment relief is described as the elevation variation between the maximum value and outlet value on the perimeter of the catchment and is denoted by B h [ 52 ]. In this current study, SW 13 has the maximum relief (0.66), and SW 9 has the minimum relief (0.13).

Stream order (U)

According to Strahler [ 54 ], the order of stream is termed as the calculation of the position of a stream in the hierarchy of streams. The smallest finger type, as well as any unbranched tributaries, is termed first stream order. Two first stream orders are combined to generate a second stream order. Following that, the second stream order combines the third, and so on. The letter U is used to represent stream order. Figure 4 depicts the representation of each sub-watershed and its drainage network. The Murredu catchment consists of fourteen sub-watersheds, in that 5th order for SW 9, SW11, and SW13; 4th order for SW 1, SW 3, SW 4, SW 5, SW 6, SW 7, S.W 8, SW 10, and SW 12; and 3rd order for SW 2 and SW 14. The catchment has a dendritic to sub-dendritic drainage structure.

Sub-watersheds and drainage networks

Stream number (N u )

In a given catchment, the number of streams is defined as the number of streams in each sequence of that catchment [ 17 ] and is denoted by the symbol N u . SW 9 (256) and SW 2 (20), respectively, have the highest and lowest stream numbers in this study.

Stream length (L u )

Stream length is defined as the mean length of the stream of each of the dissimilar orders in a catchment. As a result, the length of the stream is greater in a first-order stream, and also it increases as stream order increases [ 17 ]. It is designated by L u . In the present research, the lengths of the largest and smallest of the stream are SW 13 (160 km) and SW (28 km), respectively.

Linear aspects

Bifurcation ratio (r b ).

According to Schumm [ 45 ], the bifurcation ratio is termed as the proportion of the number of streams of any given order to the number of streams of the next higher order. It was indicated by R b . In the current study, SW 9 (16) has the maximum bifurcation ratio, and SW 2 has the minimum (8.33).

Mean stream length (L sm )

It is defined as the ratio of the length of the stream to the number of streams [ 17 ] and is denoted by L sm . In the current study, the maximum (20.97) and minimum (3.72) mean stream lengths are SW 12 and SW 9, respectively.

Stream length ratio (R l )

It is defined as the ratio of the given order’s average stream length to the next smaller order’s mean stream length [ 17 ]. R l is the symbol for it. SW 9 (3.05) and SW 2 (1.5) had the highest and lowest stream length ratio values, respectively, in the current study.

According to Horton [ 17 ], the stream length and number of unique orders in a drainage basin are linked by two fundamental rules. The foremost is the law of stream numbers that describes the link between the given order’s stream number and its stream order in terms of an inverted geometric series with the bifurcation ratio as the base. Figure 5 shows a strong correlation between stream order and stream number with better coefficients of determination ranging from SW 4 (0.975) to SW 6 (0.999).

Order of streams and the number of streams

The second is the law of stream length, which is the mean length of a particular order in terms of stream order, the average length of first-order streams, and stream length ratio. This rule is expressed as a direct geometric series. Figure 6 shows a strong correlation between stream order and stream length with coefficients of determination ranging from SW 14 (0.603) to SW 7 (0.996).

Order of streams and the stream length

Mean bifurcation ratio

Strahler [ 53 ] utilized a weighted average ratio of bifurcation generated by multiplying the ratio of bifurcation for every consecutive set of patterns by the overall number of streams occupied in the ratio and taking the average of the combination of these results to arrive at a more representative bifurcation number. SW 1 has the highest value, whereas SW 13 has the lowest value in this study.

Stream frequency (F s )

Stream frequency is defined as the number of stream segments of all orders per unit catchment area, according to Schumm [ 45 ]. It is denoted by F s . In the current study, the higher stream frequency is at SW 9 and the lower stream frequency is at SW 8.

Drainage density (D d )

According to Schumm [ 45 ], drainage density is defined as the proportion of the overall length of the stream segments of all orders to the catchment area projected on the horizontal surface. It is indicated by D d . In this study, drainage density is higher at SW 9 and lower at SW 8.

Drainage texture (D t )

It is defined as the total number of streams per perimeter of the catchment, according to Schumm [ 45 ], and is denoted by the symbol D t . In the current study, drainage texture is maximum at SW 9 and is minimum at SW 2.

Length of the overland flow (L o )

The highest value of the length of the overland flow indicates greater surface runoff and the lowest value of the length of the overland flow indicates shorter surface runoff, according to Schumm [ 45 ]. It is denoted by L o . The length of the overland flow is higher at SW 8 and lower at SW 9.

Drainage intensity (D i )

According to Faniren [ 13 ], drainage intensity is defined as the ratio of stream frequency to drainage density. It is denoted by D i . In this current study, the drainage intensity is higher and lower at SW 9 and SW 7, respectively, and shown in Fig. 7 .

Morphometric analysis of twenty sub-watersheds

RHO coefficient (ρ)

RHO coefficient is a proportion between the stream length ratio and the bifurcation ratio, according to Horton [ 17 ]. It is designated by ρ . In this current study, the RHO coefficient is higher and lower at SW 9 and SW 14, respectively.

Infiltration number (I f )

It is defined as the combination of stream frequency and drainage density, according to Faniran [ 13 ], and is denoted by I f . In the current study, SW 9 has a higher infiltration number and SW 8 has a lower infiltration number.

Constant of channel maintenance (c cm )

This property defines the number of units of catchment surface needed to support one unit of route length. In other terms, it is the number of square kilometers of catchment surface area required to support one linear kilometer of stream segment. It was first proposed by Schumm in 1956 [ 45 ], who defined the channel maintenance constant as the reverse of drainage density. In the current study, SW 8 has a higher constant of channel maintenance and SW 9 has a lower constant of channel maintenance.

Areal aspect

Circulatory ratio (r c ).

According to Miller [ 30 ], it is termed as the proportion of the area of a catchment to the area of the circle with an equal circumference as the catchment’s perimeter. It is indicated as R c . Its ratio indicates the shape of the catchment. In the current study, SW 5 has a higher circulatory ratio and SW 8 has a lower circulatory ratio.

Elongation ratio (R e )

It is defined as the proportion of the diameter of a circle covering the equal area as the catchment to the minimum length of the catchment, as per Schumm [ 45 ]. It is denoted by R e . In this current study, SW 2 has a higher elongation ratio and SW 8 has a lower elongation ratio.

Form factor (F f )

Form factor is defined as the proportion of catchment area to the square of catchment length, according to Horton [ 17 ]. It is denoted by F f . In this present study, SW 2 has a higher form factor and SW 8 has a lower form factor.

Lemniscate ratio (K)

It is used to calculate the catchment’s slope [ 8 ]. It is denoted by K . In this present study, SW 8 has a higher lemniscate ratio and SW 2 has a lower lemniscate ratio.

Shape index (S b )

The shape index is the reciprocal of the form factor. It was first proposed by Horton [ 16 ]. It is denoted by the symbol S b . In this present study, SW 8 has a higher shape index and SW 2 has a lower shape index.

Compactness coefficient (C c )

According to Horton [ 17 ], the compactness coefficient is termed as the proportion of the catchment’s perimeter to the circumference of an equivalent circular area and is indicated as C c . In this present study, SW 8 has a higher compactness coefficient and SW 5 has a lower compactness coefficient.

Relief aspect

Relief ratio (r h ).

According to Schumm [ 45 ], the relief ratio is termed as the proportion of the maximum catchment relief ( B h ) to the minimum catchment length which is parallel to the primary catchment line and is denoted by R h . In this current study, the higher value of the relief ratio is at SW 2 and the lower value of the relief ratio is at SW 13.

Relative relief (R hp )

The perimeter and watershed are used to determine relative relief [ 27 ]. R hp is the symbol for it. SW 2 has the higher value, whereas SW 8 has the lower value in this study.

Ruggedness ratio (R n )

According to Strahler [ 53 ], the ruggedness ratio is used to measure the surface unevenness or roughness. It is the combination of drainage density and maximum catchment relief and is denoted by R n . In this study, the higher value and lower value have been identified at SW 13 and SW 14, respectively.

Hypsometric analysis

The relative proportion of the catchment areas below or above a specific height is represented by the hypsometric curve for a catchment. The hypsometric integral is defined as the area below the hypsometric curve [ 52 , 45 ], and it has been used to determine the stage of development of a catchment, along with the hypsometric curve. The catchment is split into three phases such as old, mature, and young. The value of the hypsometric integral in the old stage is less than 0.3, the mature stage is between 0.3 and 0.6, and the youthful stage is greater than 0.6. The hypsometric integral is shown in Table 4 .

Morphometric sub-watershed prioritization and ranking

For this analysis, the most relevant quantitative morphometric characteristics are chosen and applied. Morphometric characteristics can be divided into three categories (linear features, relief features, and areal features). These have been utilized to prioritize more susceptible sub-watersheds since they have a direct or indirect relationship with peak flow, runoff, and risk of soil erosion [ 17 , 18 , 48 , 46 ].

Soil erosion is directly relevant to the linear and relief characteristics such as mean bifurcation ratio, drainage density, stream frequency, drainage texture, relief, ruggedness number, and so on [ 18 , 33 ]. The maximum value of linear and relief characteristics in a catchment indicates the most erodible soil. Consequently, the sub-watershed with the maximum value in the relief and linear characteristics is ranked first, while the second maximum value is ranked as second, the third maximum value is ranked as third, and so on.

The areal characteristics such as circularity ratio, shape index, compactness coefficient, elongation ratio, form factor, and lemniscate ratio have an indirect relationship with soil erosion [ 18 , 33 ]. The most erodible soil in a catchment is the soil with the minimum areal characteristic value. Hence, sub-watershed having the lowest areal characteristics values will be ranked first, the second lowest areal characteristic values will be ranked as second, the third lowest areal characteristic values will be ranked as third, and so on.

For linear and relief parameters, the maximum value is given a ranking of 1, and the next maximum value is given a ranking of 2, and so on. In the case of areal parameters, the minimum value was given a ranking of 1, followed by the next minimum value is given a ranking of 2, and so on.

After assigning a ranking based on each parameter, the ranking values for all fourteen sub-watersheds were averaged to arrive at a compound parameter value. Table 5 shows the results of ranking for all fourteen sub-watersheds. Sub-watershed 1 has a compound value of 5.75 if all the ranks in SW1 are added together and divided by 20 characteristics. The procedure has been repeated for other sub-watersheds (from SW 2 to SW 14) and presented in Table 6 .

Following the calculation of compound values, the sub-watersheds were categorized into three groups, high (≥ 5.05 to < 6.5), medium (≥ 6.5 to < 8), and low (≥ 8 to < 9.5). The sub-watershed with the minimum compound value represents as rank 1 category, SW having the next minimum compound value represents as rank 2 category, and so on. The sub-watersheds with the compound value in the range of ≥ 5.05 to < 6.5 have been specified as high priority. The sub-watershed with the compound value in the range of ≥ 6.5 to < 8 has been chosen as a medium priority. The sub-watersheds with the compound value in the range of ≥ 8 to < 9.5 have been specified as a slow priority. Among 14 sub-watersheds, SW 12 and SW 1 are falling within high priority; SW 2, SW 3, SW 4, SW 5, SW 6, SW 9, and SW 13 fall within a medium priority; and SW 7, SW 8, SW 10, SW 11, and SW 14 fall within a low priority. This means that the sub-watersheds with the highest priority have the greatest danger of runoff, peak flow, and soil erosion risk [ 18 , 33 ].

The final priority map of sub-watersheds in the Murredu catchment is shown in Fig. 8 . SW 12 and SW 1 are the most vulnerable sub-watersheds to land degradation, and they are more vulnerable to soil erosion and runoff. As a result, the findings will help in better planning and the management of the Murredu catchment.

Priority of sub-watersheds based on morphometric analysis

Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) analysis

Prioritization of LULC of sub-watersheds was based on LULC data of the year 2020 from Sentinel-2 imagery. LULC has a resolution of 10 m. LULC categories include eight primary classes such as grass, flooded vegetation, water, trees, crops, scrub/shrub, built-up area, and bare ground. Figure 9 depicts the LULC map of the research area. Table 7 shows the details of the various LULC categories. The following classes are the LULC criteria that were considered for prioritizing sub-watersheds.

Study area’s LULC cover map

SW 14 has the highest percentage of land with trees (55.48%), while SW 7 has the lowest percentage of trees (5.40%). Sub-watersheds with a smaller percentage of trees have been given a high rank, while those with a higher percentage of trees have been given a low rank.

SW 11 has the highest percentage of land with crops (79.97%), while SW 1 has the lowest percentage of crops (18.22%). Sub-watersheds with a small percentage of crops were given a high rank, while those with a high percentage of crops were given a low rank.

Scrub/shrub

SW 5 has the highest percentage of scrub/shrub (41.53%), while SW 11 has the lowest percentage of scrub (7.63%). Sub-watersheds with a lower percentage of scrub/shrub have a high rank, whereas those with a larger percentage of scrub/shrub have a low rank.

Built-up area

SW 9 has the highest percentage of land with the built-up area (25.80%), while SW 4 has the lowest percentage of built-up area (0.31%). Sub-watersheds with a larger percentage of the constructed area have a low rank, while sub-watersheds with a smaller percentage of the built-up area have a high rank.

For the built-up area parameter, the maximum value was given a ranking of 1, and the next maximum value was given a ranking of 2, and so on. In the case of trees, crops, and scrub/shrub parameters, the minimum value was given a ranking of 1, followed by the next minimum value is given a ranking of 2, and so on.

The compound parameter method of averaging values was applied for sub-watershed prioritization. Table 8 shows the results of the ranking of all fourteen sub-watersheds. All the ranks in SW1 are added together and divided by four characteristics, and then the compound parameter has been computed as 8. The procedure has been repeated for the remaining sub-watersheds from SW 2 to sw14, as shown in Table 9 .

Following the calculation of compound values, the sub-watersheds were categorized into three groups, high (≥ 4 to < 6), medium (≥ 6 to < 8), and low (≥ 8 to < 10). The sub-watershed with the minimum compound value represents as rank 1 category, SW having the next minimum compound value represents as rank 2 category, and so on. The sub-watersheds with the compound value in the range of ≥ 4 to < 6 have been specified as a high priority. The sub-watershed with the compound value in the range of ≥ 6 to < 8 has been chosen as a medium priority. The sub-watersheds with the compound value in the range of ≥ 8 to < 10 have been specified as low priority. Among four sub-watersheds, SW 9 and SW11 are falling within a high priority; SW 7, SW 8, SW 12, SW 13, and SW 14 fall within a medium priority; and SW 1, SW 2, SW 3, SW 4, SW 5, SW 6, and SW 10 fall within a low priority. Figure 10 shows the priority of sub-watersheds based on LULC analysis.

Priority of sub-watersheds based on LULC analysis

The quantitative analysis of morphometric factors will be used in the development of catchment, river basin prioritizing for soil conservation, and also for water conservation. Morphometric descriptors are simple techniques for defining catchment processes that can be used to compare catchment characteristics and for a better understanding of the geological history of the catchment. According to the data, SW 9 and SW11 have the highest priority, and SW 1, SW 2, SW 3, SW 4, SW 5, SW 6, and SW 10 have the lowest priority among sub-watersheds. The results of morphometric and LULC analysis were compared to determine the most common sub-watersheds associated with each priority. According to morphometric study and LULC analysis, two sub-watersheds, SW 10 and SW 13, are the common sub-watersheds that fall within a low and medium priority, respectively.

Conclusions

GIS and remote sensing approaches have been used for morphometric and LULC research over the Murredu catchment area. Twenty parameters of morphometric and four parameters of LULC have been calculated and scientifically analyzed in this current study. The results of morphometric analysis-based prioritization showed that the SW 12 and SW 1 sub-watersheds are of high priority. The results of the LULC analysis-based prioritizing showed that the SW 9 and SW11 sub-watersheds are of high priority. Comparing morphometric and LULC analysis, the common sub-watersheds falling within the same priority are SW 10 and SW 13. The deployment of soil and water conservation measures may be conducted in the high-priority sub-watersheds. As a result, effective land and water management strategies should be planned for each sub-watershed based on their sensitivity rankings.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Land use/land cover

Sub-watersheds

Geographical information system

Remote sensing

Shuttle radar topography mission

Digital elevation model

United States Geological Survey

Environmental Systems Research Institute

Stream order

Stream length

Stream number

Stream length ratio

Bifurcation ratio

Mean stream length

Mean stream length ratio

Stream frequency

Drainage density

Drainage texture

Length of overland flow

RHO coefficient

Drainage intensity

Infiltration number

Constant of channel maintenance

Maximum elevation

Minimum elevation

Relief ratio

Relative relief

Ruggedness number

Area of watershed

Perimeter of watershed

Basin length

Circulatory ratio

Elongation ratio

Form factor

Lemniscate ratio

Shape index

Compactness coefficient

Sum of rankings

Total number of parameters

Compound parameter

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their instructive comments, which helped to improve this paper. In addition, the authors wish to thank the US Geological Survey (USGS) for making available the satellite data. Finally, the authors also want to thank ESRI for providing land use land cover data.

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Shekar, P.R., Mathew, A. Morphometric analysis for prioritizing sub-watersheds of Murredu River basin, Telangana State, India, using a geographical information system. J. Eng. Appl. Sci. 69 , 44 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s44147-022-00094-4

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s44147-022-00094-4

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Morphometric Analysis of a Drainage Basin: A Study of Ghatganga River, Bajhang District, Nepal

by sandeep adhikari

This study attempts to study the morphometric characteristics of Ghatganga basin by using Geographical information system (GIS). This analysis has shown that the relation of stream order (U) and stream number (Nu)which gives negative linear pattern that order increases with a decreasing number of stream segment of a particular order. Different morphometric parameters such as stream length (Lu), bifurcation ratio (Rb), drainage density (D), stream frequency (Fs), texture ratio (T), elongation ratio (Re), circularity ratio (Rc), form factor ratio (Rf), relief ratio (Rh) and river profile have revealed the basin has dendritic pattern of drainage, indicating high relief and steep ground slope with less elongated young and mature landforms in which geological structures don’t have a dominant influence on basin.

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Morphometric analysis is a quantitative measurement and mathematical analysis of a drainage basin in terms of the terrain feature and its flow patterns. The morphometric characterization of the drainage system is essential to study the detailed hydrological behavior of each river basin. In the present study, an attempt has been made to determine the morphometric characteristics of the Arpa River Basin (ARB), a watershed of Sheonath River that constitutes a part of the Mahanadi River Basin. The entire ARB has been divided into 6 major sub basins and various linear, areal and relief has been carried out to understand the spatial variations in morphometric parameters and evaluate the hydrological, topographical and geological properties. This study was performed using the hydrology tool in GIS environment. The ARB comprises of dendritic drainage pattern with the maximum number of flows found in first order. Circulatory ratio (0.12) depicts an elongated shape of Arpa River basin. The mean bifurcation ratio (5.71) confirms that the drainage pattern is not affected by its structural disturbances. The study will be helpful for management of water catchment areas, agricultural land use planning, sustainable water utilization by industrial facilities as well as for studies on hazard management.

Sharaddeep Varshney

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Biraj Kanti Mondal

2022, Springer

Drainage basin’s morphometry refers to the measurement of different geomorphic and hydrologic attributes of a river basin. The geospatial technology has an efficient contribution in geographical and geological studies as it includes Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS); therefore, it has been adopted in the present study for the identification of different geomorphic attributes and their existence in Kopai river basin of West Bengal, India. The inter-relation between different morphometric parameters within each major morphometric attribute along with various dominant controlling factors of landform development was taken into consideration for the geospatial analysis and find out the stage of landform evolution of Kopai river basin. The various morphometric parameters have been correlated with each other and morphometric characteristics have been analyzed by explaining the relief, slope and drainage attribute and geometry of basin to understand their underlying relationship and control over the basin hydro-geomorphology. To synthesize the upshot of the drainage basin, the knowledgeof geoinformatics was applied by using spatial data obtained from ASTER GDEM. These data have been analyzed through Arc Map (10.3), Ms Excel and IBM SPSS (23) Statistics software and the application of geospatial technology was carried out minutely to explore the spatial and geomorphic features of Kopai river basin. It is evident that such kind of morphometric analysis is very much effective in determining the landform features and the mechanism behind its development, hence the morphometric parameters have been discussed with respect to linear, relief and aerial aspects in the present study. The current study revealed that Kopai river basin has fifth order drainage networks (according to Strahler’s method) with the dendritic drainage pattern. Moreover, the obtained values of different morphometric parameters indicate that the basin produces direct runoff from west to east and it is elongated in shape which eventually controls basin’s geomorphic and hydrological response. Keywords: Morphometric attribute, Kopai river basin, Hydro-geomorphology, Geospatial, Geoinformatics, DEM, Statistical techniques

IRJET Journal

2022, IRJET

Geographical information system (GIS) and Remote sensing has become an efficient tool in delineation of drainage pattern and water resource management. GIS and image processing techniques can be employed for the identification of morphological features and analyzing properties of basin. The morphometric parameters of basin can address linear, areal and relief aspects. The present study deals mainly with the geometry, more emphasis being placed on the evaluation of morphometric parameters such as stream order(Nu), stream length(Lu), bifurcation ratio(Rb), drainage density(Dd), stream frequency (Fs), texture ratio (T), elongation ratio (Re), circularity ratio (Rc) and form factor ratio (Rf) etc.. study area is Indrayani River, geographically located between 18°57' to 18°35' N latitudes and 73°25' to 74°0' E longitudes located in Pune district of Maharashtra state of India. The GIS based morphometric analysis revealed the 7 th order drainage basin and drainage pattern mainly. The total numbers of streams of whole river basin area is 14842 in which 9611 are first order, 4539 are second order, 541 are third order, 122 are fourth order, 25 are fifth order, 3 are sixth order and 1 are seventh order streams. The length of stream segment is maximum for first order stream and decreases as the stream order increases. This study would help the local people for the management of the soil and water conservation practices and created structures of CCT, SCT, Terreces and Bunds for the reduces the soil erosion and recharge the ground water potential.

IJAR Indexing

2018, International Journal of Advanced Research (IJAR)

Understanding the behavior of surface drainage network is one of the important prerequisite condition for effective planning and management of water resources within the watershed. Morphometric analysis of a watershed is a crucial step in watershed development and management to understand and interpret the dynamics of drainage system of the watershed and is useful for interpretation of silent features of drainage network. A morphometric analysis was carried out to evaluate the drainage characteristics of Mohalkhad watershed which covers an area about 54 km2 in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh in Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). Geospatial technique/tool such as Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS was used to evaluate the linear, areal and relief aspects of morphometric parameters. RS and GIS technique is very helpful over the conventional methods that are too laborious and cumbersome. To carry out this study, Survey of India (SOI) toposheet of 1:50,000 scale and ASTER DEM (30 m resolution) data were used and analysis was carried out in ArcGIS 10.5 software. Total 21 morphometric parameters of Mohalkhad watershed were evaluated considering the linear, areal and relief aspects. The significance of each morphometric parameter with the hydrological behavior of the watershed is discussed in this study. This exercise provide detailed insight into drainage system of the Mohalkhad watershed, which is useful for the development and management of water conservation measures in the area.

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Morphometric analysis is refers as the quantitative evaluation of form characteristics of the earth surface and any landform unit. The quantitative analysis of the drainage morphometric system is vital to understand the hydrological and environmental interaction and its processes of an area. Geographical information system (GIS) has emerged as an efficient tool in delineation of drainage pattern and ground water potential and its planning. GIS and image processing techniques can be employed for the identification of morphological features and analysing properties of basin. In the present study Landsat-8 and Sentinal-2 image along with Cartosat DEM and Survey of India Toposheets are used. The Gai River basin is a sixth order basin, having 687 stream segments, encompassing an area of 148.30 km2 with a mean bifurcation ratio of 3.68. The drainage density ranges from 0 stream per km to 5.99 streams per km with most of the high density area concentrating in the upper reach of the river, suggesting a lithological control coupled with climatic conditions. The average slope and the relative relief ranging between 0o to 68.63o per km and 8.04 m/km2 to 506.26 m/km2 respectively are directly controlled by the lithology of the basin as it shows higher value for hard rocks of Dafla Formation and lower values for non-compact conglomerate of Kimin Formation.

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An assessment of Varuna river basin of India was performed to study the various drainage parameters in GIS platform. The delineation of drainage network is possible either physically from topographic sheets or with the help data of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) by methods for calculation techniques. Extraction of the basin and sub-basins, stream network has been produced to evaluate the drainage characteristics in the study zone. The entire Varuna river basin has been subdivided into 3 sub-watersheds and 41 morphometric parameters have been computed under four broad categories i.e. drainage network, basin geometry, drainage texture, and relief characteristics. The morphometric analysis has been performed and different parameters have been correlated with each other to understand their underlying connection and their role over the basin hydro geomorphology. The study discloses different types of morphometric analysis and how they influence the soil and topography of the basin. The in...

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Morphometry is the measurement and mathematical analysis of the configuration of the earth's surface, shape and dimension of its landforms (Agarwal, 1998; Obi Reddy et al., 2002). Morphometric analysis of the drainage system is an important aspect of characterization of a watershed as all the hydrologic and geomorphic process occur within the watershed. The morphometric analysis of the drainage basin and channel network play a vital role for understanding the geo-hydrological behavior of drainage basin and expresses the prevailing climate, geology, geomorphology, structural, etc. antecedents of the catchment. Detailed morphometric analysis of Bidoli Gad (tributary of Pashchimi Nayar River,Gargwal Himalaya) helps to understanding the influence of drainage morphometric network on landforms and their characteristics. The Bidoli Gad Riverhave 4ͭ ͪ orders of streams. Keeping in view all such hydrological issues, the all orders streams have been taken into account under the present study. Secondary data such as Landsat Data, toposheets (SOI) has been used to delineate the boundary of river basin and Arc Map 10.1, and other statistics software has been used for mapping and creating DEM of the study area. The analysis has revealed that the total number as well as the total length of segment is maximum in first order streams and decreases as stream order increase. Present work will help to understand the morphometric characteristics for researcher and planner. Introduction There is diversity in landform on the earth surface. These landform are described after paying attention about the roles of geomorphic processes and historical events. This all makes one to understand the landform development and the effect of geomorphic processes affected mainly by human beings. The analysis of the watershed and rock structure on earth surface provides a framework for ecosystem management which is currently one of the best options for conservation and management of natural resources. The water cycle regulates and reflects the natural variability of the physical processes which affect the ecosystems. Keeping these facts, the

JASH MATHEW

The morphometric analysis of the drainage basin and stream network deals with the measurement and geometrical analysis of the different aspects of a drainage basin. In the present study, morphometric analysis has been carried out using Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques to evaluate the different morphometric characteristics by considering three parameters: linear, areal and relief aspects. The basin is characterized by dendritic drainage pattern. The bifurcation ratio (Rb) between different successive orders varies revealing the geo structural control. The shape parameters (Rf = 0.37, Rc = 0.31, Fr = 0.18, Re = 0.52 and Wb = 11.88) indicate the elongated shape of the basin in association with areal (D = 0.99 km 2 , Dt = 1.66 km 2 etc.) and relief (H, S b etc.) parameters express that the basin has low discharge of runoff with permeable basement rock condition, high infiltration capacity and good groundwater storage and a flatter peak of flow of longer duration.

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Geographic Information system (GIS) technique is appropriate tool for the identification of geomorphological features. GIS and image processing techniques can be used to define morphological characteristics and to investigate the characteristics of the basin. The present study focused on the morphometric analysis of Nandani river basin using RS and GIS techniques. The Nandani river basin has covered an area of 492 km2. For this study, all the satellite data is obtained from Bhuvan website and analyzed in ArcGIS software. Morphometric analysis of river basin was performed by determining the parameters like Linear Aspects, Basin Geometry, Drainage Texture Analysis, Relief characteristics. The drainage pattern of stream network from the basin have been observed as mainly dendritic type. Watershed boundary, flow direction, flow accumulation, flow volume flow ordering have been prepared using a hydrological tool and the slope aspect has been prepared using a surface tool in ArcGIS. These geomorphometric assessment results can be used in river basin or watershed management and hydrological studies.

Priti Jayswal (SWE)

Current Journal of Applied Science and Technology

Aims: Morphometric study of Dhatarwadi river basin. Place and Duration of Study: This study is a work done for the research work in Ph.D. degree at College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh, Gujarat, India. Methodology: Morphometric analysis involved determination of linear, aerial and relief aspects of the Dhatarwadi river basin, which was carried out using 30 X 30 m SRTM DEM in ArcGIS 10.5 software using standard formulae. Results: The obtained results revealed that the Dhatarwadi river basin is 6th order drainage basin. The total number of 1327 streams were identified out of which 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th order streams are counted as 1036, 239, 42, 7, 2 and 1 number, respectively. The mean bifurcation ratio value is 4.31 for the study area which indicates that the geological structures are not distorting the drainage pattern. Stream length ratio varies between 0.14 and 2.14 indicates late youth geomorphic stage. The leng...

Dipanjan Das majumdar

Morphometry governs the dynamics of a drainage basin: analysis & implications *Atrayee Biswas1, Dipanjan Das Majumdar2 and Sayandeep Banerjee3 1Department of Geography, University of Calcutta, 35, B. C. Road, Kolkata- 700 019 2Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Vidyasagar University, Medinipur- 721 102 3Department of Geology, University of Calcutta, 35, B. C. Road, Kolkata- 700 019 * [email protected] Abstract Mountainous rivers are the most significant source of water supply in the Himalayan provinces of India. The drainage basin dynamics of these rivers are controlled by the tectonomorphic parameters, which include both surface and sub-surface characteristics of a basin. To understand the drainage basin dynamics and their usefulness in watershed prioritisation and management in terms of soil erosion studies, groundwater potential assessment and flood hazard risk reduction in mountainous rivers, morphometric analysis of a Himalayan River (Supin River) basin has been taken as a case study. The entire Supin River basin has been subdivided into 27 sub-watersheds and 36 morphometric parameters have been calculated under four broad categories: drainage network, basin geometry, drainage texture and relief characteristics, each of which is further grouped into five different clusters having similar morphometric properties. The various morphometric parameters have been correlated with each other to understand their underlying relationship and control over the basin hydro-geomorphology. The result thus generated, provides adequate knowledge-base required for decision making during strategic planning and delineation of prioritized hazard management zones in mountainous terrains.

The quantitative analysis of morphometric parameters is found to be of immense significance in river basin evaluation. Morphometric analysis of a watershed provides a quantitative description of the drainage system. This study was undertaken to determine the drainage characteristics of Bhera river watershed (2A2H1) which is a tributary of Damodar River with an area of 268 km 2. Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques are nowadays used for measuring various morphometric parameters of the drainage basins and watersheds, as they have emerged as a powerful tool for the manipulation and analysis of spatial information. In the present study stream number, order, frequency, density and bifurcation ratio are derived and arranged on the basis of areal and linear properties of drainage channels using GIS. Morphometric analysis has revealed that the watershed is a 5th order drainage basin. The low order streams dominate the watershed than higher orders. This phenomenon causes less time availability for the infiltration of rain water in the upper catchment areas. The calculated value of bifurcation ratio, drainage texture and drainage density in the watershed reveals that the watershed is occupied with hard rocks. The watershed indicates elongated basin as per the value of circulatory ratio. The length of overland flow value for the watershed shows that the rainwater travels a relatively shorter distance before getting concentrated to channels.

Dr. A. Muthukrishnan Achari

The utility of the drainage geomorphometric characteristics for the investigations relating to geomorphology and hydrology has been amply demonstrated by a number of studies to conducted various geospatial technology. The present study area is Dindigul district and its suburbs have been frequented by heavy rains during the monsoon seasons. The river Kodavanar which is frequently in spate during the monsoon seasons and flows through the western part of the Dindigul and its suburbs has a large catchment area, extending to the neighbouring Karur and Madurai Districts on the north east. The aim is to assess the morphometric characteristics of the Kodavanar sub basin of Amaravathy basin of Tamil Nadu. The objectives is to accomplish the aim are: to analyse the linear, areal and relief aspects and to bring out the form and processes of the study area. In order to understand the drainage characteristics in various parts of the Kodavanar sub basin, the basin has been divided into 5 watersheds namely, Kodavanar-Umiyar, Anaiviludan Odai, Pudukulam kombaiar, Todikombu and Periyakombai watersheds. Strahler‟s method of stream ordering which is the most commonly used method of stream ordering has been followed for the present study. For all the 5 watersheds separately, the linear, and areal and relief aspects have been discussed. The linear aspects considered for the study include stream order, stream number, stream length, bifurcation ratio and length ratio. The areal aspects include basin area, form factor, circulatory ratio, elongation ratio, drainage density, stream frequency, length of overland flow and the relief aspects considered for the present study are basin relief and ruggedness number.

subzar Malik

A GIS based morphometric analysis of Kandaihimmat Watershed, which is a part of Tawa river basin of Hoshangabad district, Madhya Pradesh India, was carried out in the study. Drainage map of the watershed was prepared from Survey of India Toposheets (SOI) No.55 F/14 on scale 1: 50,000. Drainage pattern of watershed exhibits dendritic to the sub-dendritic pattern. The stream order range from I to Vth order. Morphometric parameters viz; number and length of streams, drainage density, drainage frequency, bifurcation and texture ratio were calculated. The shape parameters also determined include form factor, circularity and elongation ratio and basin relief. High drainage density (2.67 km/km2) of the watershed is the signature of impermeable subsoil material, sparse vegetation and high relief. High texture ratio indicates high runoff and high erosion potential of the watershed. Bifurcation, elongation, circularity ratio and form factor indicate shape of the basin as elongated to nearly c...

TJPRC Publication

Natural resource conservation and its sustainable planning and development of a river basin can be done satisfactory by morphometric characteristics analysis. In the present study, Survey of India toposheets no. 45H/9, 45H/10, 45H/13, 45H/14, 45L/1 and 45L/2, were used to evaluate hydro morphometric characteristics (viz. Linear, aerial and relief) of Upper Berach river basin in GIS environment using the ARC GIS 10.1 software. Results reveals that the total area of river basin covers 1095.98 km2, which divided in two sub-basins, covers the area of 431.08 and 664.90 km 2 respectively. Dendritic to sub-dendritic drainage pattern with stream orders of sub-basins, are found with ranged from VI to VII orders. Sub-basin stream length ratios are changing haphazardly which is indicating differences in slope and topographic conditions. Mean bifurcation ratio values vary from 3.28 to 4.13. Drainage density shows variation from 1.77 to 1.84 km/km 2 in the whole river basin and sub-basins. The values of form factor and circularity ratio are varied from 0.15 to 0.23 and 0.24 to 0.47, in the whole river basin and sub-basins The ruggedness number of river basins, sub-basin-1 and sub-basin-2 are 0.83, 0.40 and 0.83.

jagdish sapkale

Nowadays river systems consisting with uneven number of natural resources face different problems with a large population pressure and climate change. To overcome such problems, the river basins must monitor properly using advanced technologies. In the present research work, an effort verifying the detailed morphometric characteristics of Morna river is undertaken which itself is a part of Warna basin of Maharashtra. A morphometric analysis of Morna river proceeds using geospatial techniques. The purpose of assimilation of morphological features and analyzing properties of basins can be done by using GIS and image processing techniques. Linear and areal aspects of morphometric parameters can be evaluated using GIS. The present task copes mainly with morphometric parameters such as stream order, stream length, bifurcation ratio, drainage density, stream frequency, texture ratio, elongation ratio, circularity ratio and form factor ratio etc. For the preparation of DEM, Cartosat data can be used; whereas for the evaluation of linear, areal and relief aspects of morphometric parameters GIS technique can be taken into consideration. The Morna river basin is estimated to have an area of 172.2 km 2. The study area was concerned with 1 st to 6 th stream orders. There are altogether 449 streams with a total stream length of 395.25km. Present research work is useful to understand the topography, erosional status and drainage pattern of the area and also for constructing a comprehensive watershed development plan. This study plays an important role in planning rainwater harvesting and watershed management also.

2020, IRJET

The Morphometric analysis of the drainage basin and stream network deals with the measurement an geometrical analysis of the different aspects of a drainage basin. In the present study, morphometric analysis has been carried out using Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques to evaluate the different morphometric characteristics by considering three parameters: Linear, Areal and Relief aspects also deals mainly with the Geometry. The Karha river basin is one of the sub basin of Nira river basins in Pune district of Maharashtra and it covers 1196.98 Sq.km areas. Morphometric parameters like Stream order, Stream length, Bifurcation ratio, Drainage density, Stream Frequency, Relief ratio, Compactness coefficient are calculated using various techniques. The basin is characterized by Dendric Drainage Pattern. The shape parameters (Rf, Rc, Fr, Re, Wb) indicate the elongated shape of the basin

SANSKRITI MUJUMDAR

2015, Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Sayandeep Banerjee

Lalit Thakare

2018, Maharashtra Bhugolshastra Sanshodhan Patrika

In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the detailed morphometric characteristics of Vincharna watershed, tributary of the Sina river basin in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. The drainage patterns are dendritic and parallel, covering 390 sq. km. Morphometric analysis was done to determine the drainage characteristics of Vincharna watershed using topographic maps, ASTER and SRTM DEM (30 m Resolution). For detailed study, ASTER and SRTM data was used for preparing Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The relief data was derived from SOI toposheets and GIS-RS techniques were used to evaluate Linear, Areal and Relief aspects of morphometric parameters. Watershed boundary, flow accumulation, flow direction, flow length, stream ordering were prepared using Hydrology Tool; and contour, Slope, Aspect, Hillshade have been prepared using Surface Tool in ArcGIS-10 software. Different thematic maps like Stream Network, Slope, Relief, Aspect and Hillshade were prepared by using ArcGIS software. Based on all morphometric parameters achieved, it can be concluded that the development in erosive processes of the area by the river has been progressed beyond the maturity which indicates the lithology had an influence on the drainage development. These studies are very useful for planning rainwater harvesting and watershed management.

Ravindra Posti

Dr. Sandip K . Sirsat , VISHRANTI KADAM

2021, Journal of Geomatics

We present a hydro-geomorphological study to demarcate the groundwater potential zones in the water scarcity prone Painganga river basin, which is a sub-basin of Godavari River and located in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra, India. In this, we measured the linear, aerial and relief aspects of this drainage basin along with the slope contribution. Furthermore, a geographic information system (GIS) technique has been utilized to measure the order and length of the streams of the Painganga River. We find that the hydrogeological condition in the studied area is largely controlled by topographic features such as rivers, slopes and hills. The river basin has seven orders with a dendritic and sub dendritic type of drainage pattern without any structural or tectonic control. The drainage pattern is dominated by the first order streams and there is a decreasing trend in stream frequency and order with an increase in the stream order. The basin has an intermediate textural ration (7.549) with a nearly elongated shape. The pervasive nature of the relatively weathering resistant Deccan basalt in the basin pushed the ruggedness number to a minimum level (1.172). Digital elevation model and relief ratio of Painganga River basin suggests a moderate relief. The hypsometric integral value of the basin is in equilibrium stage and river appears to be in a mature phase of development.

In the present study, an attempt has been made to apply the various morphometric techniques to Sali river basin in Bankura district, West Bengal, which is developed over polygenetic surface. The morphometric characteristics of the basin contain important information regarding its formation and development, as all hydrologic and geomorphic processes occur within the basin area. The quantitative analysis of morphometric techniques of the said basin is very significant in understanding the landform processes, estimation of run-off, flood discharge, ground water recharge, soil and water conservation and sustainable environmental management. For detailed study, different statistical techniques and Geographical Information System (GIS) has been applied to evaluate the linear, areal and relief aspects of the said basin. Different thematic maps i.e. drainage density, drainage frequency, stream ordering and other maps have been prepared by using GIS software.

Nunavath Hari

A comprehensive watershed development plan generally begins with a thorough understanding of morphometry of the river basin. Geomorphological characteristics of a river basin play an important role in modelling various hydrological processes of a river basin. Morphometric analysis involves computation of stream length (L), number of streams (n), bifurcation ratio (R b), density of streams per unit drainage area (D d), texture ratio (T), circulatory ratio (Rc), elongation ratio (Re), form factor (Rf), Stream frequency(Fs) and constant Channel maintenance (C) (km), elevation difference, slope perimeter and area of drainage basins (A). The parameters were extracted from the Digital Elevation Model (ASTER DEM-90 m) which was downloaded from USGS website to prepare topographic, slope and delineation of drainage map of the basin using Spatial Analyst tool of ARC GIS 10. The morphometric characteristics of Gundlakamma River basin of size 8243 Km 2 using GIS was analysed. The extracted parameters can conveniently be used for future watershed development plan. Morphometric analysis has been carried out for the following parameters, namely number of stream order and area covered under the 1 st order, 2 nd order, 3 rd order, 4 th order, 5 th order, 6 th order and 7 th order are 5767 (52.12%), 1443 (22.67 %), 358 (12.88 %), 86 (7.53 %), 19 (3.77 %) 6 (1.41%) and 1 (2%) respectively. Bifurcation ratio (Rb) of the Gundlakamma river sub basin was 3.69. The other characteristics such as basin relief (Bh), relief ratio (Rh), ruggedness number (Rn), drainage density (Dd), circulatory ratio (Rc), stream frequency (Fs), texture ratio (T), form factor (Rf), length of overland flow (Lof), constant channel maintenance was 683, 3.04, 820.32, 1.20, 0.09, 0.93, 0.0012, 0.16, 0.42, 0.83. The Gundlakamma river sub basin was elongated shape with low permeability to infiltrate and less vegetative cover.

Sharad Chandra Dwivedi

Morphometric analysis of four sub-watersheds namely Pidhaura, Batesar, Balapur and Pariar forming parts of Yamuna River around Bah Tahsil of Agra district have been carried out using Geo-coded FCC of bands 2, 3 and 4 of IRS 1D, LISS-III, SOI toposheets number 54 J/5 and 54 J/9 and GIS softwares-ArcGIS, Arcview and 3Dem software for preparation of DEM. The present study shows terrain exhibits dendritic to sub-dendritic drainage pattern, stream order ranges from third to fourth order; drainage density varies slightly and has very coarse to coarse texture in Pidhaura and Balarpur sub-watersheds and fine drainage texture in Batesar and Pariar sub-watersheds. The other parameters determined and discussed include bifurcation ratio, elongation ratio, stream frequency, number, length of overland flow and relief aspects of the watersheds. The mean bifurcation ratio depicts that the basin falls under normal basin category. The elongation ratio shows that Balarpur sub-watershed mark elongation pattern whereas Pidhaura, Batesar and Pariar sub watersheds possess circular shape. The present study concludes that remote sensing techniques proved to be a competent tool in morphometric analysis of drainage basin and channel network. watersheds namely Pidhaura, Batesar, Balapur and Pariar forming parts of of Agra district have been coded FCC of bands 2, 3 and 4 of IRS-III, SOI toposheets number 54 J/5 and 54 J/9 and ArcGIS, Arcview and 3Dem software for preparation of DEM. The present study shows that the dendritic drainage pattern, stream order ranges from third to fourth order; drainage density varies slightly and has very coarse to coarse texture watersheds and fine drainage watersheds. The other parameters determined and discussed include bifurcation gation ratio, stream frequency, infiltration number, length of overland flow and relief aspects of the o depicts that the basin falls under normal basin category. The elongation watershed mark elongation pattern whereas Pidhaura, Batesar and Pariar sub-watersheds possess circular shape. The present study ensing techniques proved to be a competent tool in morphometric analysis of drainage basin

Haroon Sajjad

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT The quantitative analysis of drainage system is an important aspect of characterization of watersheds. Using watershed as a basic unit in morphometric analysis is the most logical choice because all hydrologic and geomorphic processes occur within the watershed. Dudhganga catchment comprises of five watersheds with a total area of 660 km² has been selected for the present study. In this paper an attempt is made to evaluate the various linear parameters (Stream order, Stream number, Stream length, stream length ratio, Bifurcation ratio, Drainage density, Texture ratio, Stream frequency) and shape factors (Compactness coefficient, Circularity ratio, Elongation ratio, Form factor) of the catchment were computed at watershed level. This was achieved using GIS to provide digital data that can be used for different calculations Copy Right, IJCR, 2012, Academic Journals. All rights reserved.

IOSR Journals

Abstract: Rivers are the dynamic process which tends to change the channel morphology and hydrological characteristics by the process of erosion and deposition. Drainage basin as a whole or its sub-basins is considered one of the most fundamental geomorphic units. So the study of various properties of rivers and drainage basins is quite pertinent. Such a study is useful in ascertaining the stages of geomorphic evolution of different basins, topographic characteristics, and hydrological conditions of the concerned area which inturn will provide necessary input for catchment management strategies. The Digaru River is an alluvial river which itself is dynamic system that adjust their geometry according to differential rates of stream flow (discharge) and sediment load. This research work tries to deal with the theoretical view on geomorphic basin and changes that is going on by quantitatively analysing the morphometric characteristics, because the existing geological and geomorphological informations on Lohit district are not adequate for evolving a valid and acceptable model for the geomorphic evolution of the catchment. Key words: Fundamental, Digaru, Geomorphic, Pertinent, Topographic, Catchment, Morphometric, Adequate, Discharge, Quantitatively, Theoretical, Discharge.

Professor Biswaranjan Mistri , Biswajit Mondal

Management of natural resources and to promote overall economic conditions are the major approach of watershed management. The main aspects of river basin management are to higher agricultural productivity and conserving natural resources and to improve rural livelihood. Morphometric analysis of a river catchment or basin provides a quantitative description of drainage system and relief characteristics. In the present study, morphometric parameters like basin geometry, drainage network, drainage texture have been analyzed through Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS techniques in Gandheswari river basin of Bankura district. Different types of thematic maps have been prepared through GIS techniques. The river basin covers an area of 364.9 Sq.km. The basin is in elongated in shape and is structurally controlled. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) has been prepared for the analysis of slope of the river basin.

The quantitative analysis of drainage system is an important aspect of characterization of watersheds. Using watershed as a basic unit in morphometric analysis is the most logical choice because all hydrologic and geomorphic processes occur within the watershed. Shaliganga Sub catchment comprises of two watersheds with a total area of 354 km² and has been selected for the present study. Various linear parameters (Stream order, Stream number, Stream length, stream length ratio, Bifurcation ratio, Drainage density, Texture ratio, Stream frequency) and shape factors (Compactness coefficient, Circularity ratio, Elongation ratio, Form factor) of the Sub catchment were computed at watershed level. This was achieved using GIS to provide digital data that can be used for different calculations

Md. Zakaria , Md.Majadur Rahman , Md. Abul Kashem Majumder

—This study aims to define the drainage morphometry of Reju Khal drainage basin using Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data to evaluate the drainage condition of this river with the help of Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing. The morphometric analysis of the Reju Khal drainage basin has been carried out through measurement of linear, areal and relief aspects. It is found that Reju Khal tributaries are of 6th order. Total 1008 streams are identified of which 796 are first order, 160 are second order, 34 are third order, 9 are fourth order, 3 are fifth order and 1 sixth order stream. Drainage patterns of stream network from the basin have been observed as mainly of dendritic type in the major area also some have rectangular and some trellis drainage pattern in northeastern and eastern side of the area. 4th, 5th and 6th order streams have Bifurcation ratio (Rb) is near to 3.00, which indicate geomorpholgical control and 2nd and 3rd order streams have near to 5.00 which indicate the influence of structural control on the development of the drainage pattern. The presence of the maximum number of the first order segments and the values of the mean stream length ratio indicate differences in slope and topographic conditions of the basin. The slope map of the area reveals low and very gentle slope basin. Drainage density and texture ratio shows that the texture of basin is moderate which indicate medium resistant or permeable subsoil materials, moderate vegetation and infiltration; the drainage texture shows fine texture indicating soft or weak rocks unprotected by vegetation. Compactness coefficient, circulatory ratio and elongation ratio shows that the shape of basin almost circular. The elongation ratio, length of overland flow and relief map of the basin shows that the major part of basin is of low relief and very young topography. The morphometric analysis of drainage basin reveal that the drainage basin is low laying flood prone drainage basin and have moderate to good groundwater prospect. There is also need to examine other factor of land use, climate, soil type, geological structure and stratigraphy to know hydrological process, landslide and flooding condition.

Jyoti Sarup

the present study revealed the morphometric analysis for the Upper-Helmand river basin of Afghanistan. Basinis further subdivided into five sub-watersheds, namely SW I, SW II, SW III, SW IV and SW – V. ASTER DEM data has been used in Arc-GIS for carrying out morphometric analysis, stream order (U) and its correlation with other characteristics are obtained. Stream order for all the sub-watersheds is varying between 5 to 8 which shows drainage pattern as a dendritic to sub-dendritic pattern. The mean bifurcation ratio ranges 4.117 to 5.888 that shows sub-basins are under normal condition and high bifurcation ratio illustrate high control of drainage structure. The mean bifurcation ratio of the whole basin is 4.230, which depict that geological structures are not influenced the drainage pattern. Drainage density exhibits coarse drainage and texture exhibit fine drainage texture. Sub-watersheds elongation ratio is 0.44 to 0.496 that shows elongation pattern. The most suitable software ...

Pandurang Pisal

Watershed development and management plans are very important for surface and ground water conservation. To prepare a watershed development plan, it becomes important to know the topography, lithology, erosional status and drainage pattern of the area. In the present investigation various morphometric parameters of the Bhogavati river basin are outlined. The Bhogavati river basin is 5th order and its different morphometrical parameters are found to be useful for the proper land use planning and water resources management studies in the basin. Dendritic drainage pattern in the area shows that the area consists of homogeneous rock material, which is structurally undisturbed. The Basin is passing through an early mature stage to old stage of the fluvial geomorphic cycle. The elongation and circulatory ratio reveals that the Bhogavati river basin is highly elongated and flood flows are easier to manage than that of circulatory basins.

Jobin Thomas

2012, Environmental Earth Sciences

The morphometric analysis of river basins represents a simple procedure to describe hydrologic and geomorphic processes operating on a basin scale. A morphometric analysis was carried out to evaluate the drainage characteristics of two adjoining, mountain river basins of the southern Western Ghats, India, Muthirapuzha River Basin (MRB) in the western slopes and Pambar River Basin (PRB) in the eastern slopes. The basins, forming a part of the Proterozoic, high-grade, Southern Granulite Terrain of the Peninsular India, are carved out of a terrain dominantly made of granite- and hornblende-biotite gneisses. The Western Ghats, forming the basin divide, significantly influences the regional climate (i.e., humid climate in MRB, while semi-arid in PRB). The Survey of India topographic maps (1:50,000) and Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission digital elevation data were used as the base for delineation and analysis. Both river basins are of 6th order and comparable in basin geometry. The drainage patterns and linear alignment of the drainage networks suggest the influence of structural elements. The Rb of either basins failed to highlight the structural controls on drainage organization, which might be a result of the elongated basin shape. The irregular trends in Rb between various stream orders suggest the influence of geology and relief on drainage branching. The Dd values designate the basins as moderate- to well-drained with lower infiltration rates. The overall increasing trend of Rl between successive stream orders suggests a geomorphic maturity of either basins and confirmed by the characteristic I hyp values. The Re values imply an elongate shape for both MRB and PRB and subsequently lower vulnerability to flash floods and hence, easier flood management. The relatively higher Rr of PRB is an indicative of comparatively steeply sloping terrain and consequently higher intensity of erosion processes. Further, the derivatives of digital elevation data (slope, aspect, topographic wetness index, and stream power index), showing significant differences between MRB and PRB, are useful in soil conservation plans. The study highlighted the variation in morphometric parameters with respect to the dissimilarities in topography and climate.

The analysis of marphometric parameters of Kolamba river basin has been carried out using Arc GIS 10.5. This study involves Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques to evaluate and compare linear, relief and aerial parameters of Kolamba River and has been taken up for prioritization. Linear parameters include stream length (Lu), stream order (u) and stream number (Nu). In aerial parameters area (A) and perimeter (P) are important factors. Compound parameter (Cp) was calculated and prioritization ratings have been carried out. The present study area covers 88.69sq.km. Kolamba river basin has three sub streams which are Nigadi stream, Chikli stream, and Antwadi stream. The Kolamba river is 6 th order stream having length of about 1.42 km. It has latitude 17 0 30 ' N and 17 0 30 ' N and longitude 74 0 0 ' E and 74 0 15 ' E. This area is included in Survey of India (SOI) topographic sheet no. 47 K/3 on the scale 1: 50000. The drainage network is delineated by using False Colour Composite (FCC) and Indian Remote Satellite (IRS-1D) LISS 3 satellite images and Survey of India toposheet. Cartosat DEM (30m) is used for this marphometric analysis. This area receives high rainfall but after mansoon this area suffers from drought condition. This area is high relief mountainous area. Drainage pattern is dendritic in nature. The marphometric parameters like Bifurcating ratio (Rb), Elongation ratio (Re), Drainage Density (Dd), Texture Ratio (Tu), Form Factor (Rf), Stream Frequency (Df) etc. gives brief explanation about study area. Hence marphometric analysis is very helpful to understand the various characteristics of drainage basin.

Pankaj Kumar

2009, Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing

Dr Kuldeep Pareta

Bibhash Sarma , Dipankar Sharma

2018, International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET)

The study of river basin is very important in fluvial geography. Analysis of basin morphometric is an integral part in the study of river basin. Basin morphometry is a means of numerically analyzing or mathematically quantifying different aspects of a drainage basin. Basin morphometry is an important means of understanding a drainage basin using mathematically derived parameters. In the present study, morphometric analysis of the drainage basin has been carried using earth observation data and geographical information system (GIS) techniques. Basin morphometry has been generally analyzed under three broad aspects and they are the linear, areal and relief aspects. These aspects of morphometric analysis have been studied extensively by generating DEM of the basin and formulating them in Arc GIS and compute various physical properties of the basin. In the present study, the Jiya Dhol river basin which is one of the north bank tributaries of river Brahmputra in Assam has been selected for morphometric analysis. Key Words-Morphometric Analysis, Arc GIS,DEM, Linear, Areal and Relief aspects.

Current World Environment

Naval Kishore

2014, Journal of environment and earth science

An attempt has been made to study the detailed morphometric and geomorphological characteristics of the Neugal Watershed, which is a part of the Beas River Basin, in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India. For detailed study of this watershed, geographical information system (GIS) was used in the evaluation of slope, linear stream ordering and relief aspects of morphometric parameters and also in presentation of geomorphological subdivisions of the basin. Surface Tools in ArcGIS-10 software and ASTER (DEM) were used in the preparation of watershed boundary, slope-aspect and different thematic maps like drainage density, slope and relief. More than eight morphometric parameter of different aspects have been computed. It is observed that the stream frequency decreases as the stream order increases and the densities of 1 st order streams are higher in the northern, southern and south-eastern part of the Neugal watershed area. Based on the relationship between absolute and relative...

Ashenafi Gurmu

Prafull Singh

Dr. Ankit Kumar , Vipin Vyas , Sanjay Samuel

Morphometric analysis of six sub-watersheds (Chandni Nalla, Tawa River, Gunjari Nalla, Gadaria Nalla, Kaliyadeh River and Bhagner River) in the central zone of the Narmada River basin was carried out using remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques. The morphometric parameters of the sub-watersheds are classified under linear, aerial and relief aspects. Morphometric analysis has been carried out using GIS software-ERDAS Imagine (V 8.7) and Arc GIS (V 9.0). Drainage network in the study area shows dendritic pattern. Dendritic pattern, in general is considered as a group of resequent streams within homogenous lithology and gently sloping topography. Stream orders range from first to sixth order. Results obtained from the morphometric analysis show that all sub-watersheds have very coarse to coarse drainage texture and fall under normal basin category, while the elongation ratio (Re) shows that Chandni subwatershed is circular in shape and the remaining subwatersheds are elongated.

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Morphometric analysis of a drainage basin using geographical information system in Gilgel Abay watershed, Lake Tana Basin, upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

• Original Article
• Open access
• Published: 24 June 2021
• volume  11 , Article number:  122 ( 2021 )

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• Alemsha Bogale 1  

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GIS and remote sensing approach is an effective tool to determine the morphological characteristics of the basin. Gilgel Abay watershed is stretched between latitude 10.56° to 11.22° N and longitude 36.44° to 37.03° E which is one major contributing river of Lake Tana which is the source of Blue Nile. The present study addressed linear and areal morphometric aspect of the watershed. The study deals with emphasis on the evolution of morphometric parameters such as stream order, stream length, bifurcation ratio, drainage density, stream frequency, texture ratio, elongation ratio, circularity ratio, and form factor ratio. The morphometric analysis of the basin revealed that Gilgel Abay is firth-order drainage basin with total of 662 drainage network, of which 511 are first order, 111 are second order, 30 are third order, 9 are fourth order, and 1 is fifth-order stream. The total length of stream is longer for first order and decrease with increasing stream order. The mean bifurcation ratio is 5.16 which is greater than the standard range, and it indicates that basin is mountainous and susceptible to flooding. Low drainage density is observed which is 0.6 km −2 . It indicates that basin is highly permeable and thick vegetation cover. Areal aspect of the morphometric analysis of the basin revealed that the basin is slightly potential to flooding and soil erosion, indicating that runoff generated from the upland area of the watershed is significantly infiltrated at the gentle downstream part and contributing to groundwater potential. Further studies with the help of GIS and remote sensing with high-resolution remote sensing data integrating with ground control data in the field are more effective to formulate appropriate type of natural resource management system.

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Introduction

A drainage basin is a part of land where water from rainfall is contributing to a common point. It is useful element of the catchment, and all flow of water is governed by its properties (Christopher et al. 2010 ). GIS and remote sensing techniques are efficient tools used to analyze the hydrological process of the drainage basin (Waikar and Nilawar 2014 ). Drainage basin analysis is an essential used to assess and manage both ground and surface water resource. Important characteristics of the drainage basin such as shape, length of tributaries, size, and slope are highly correlated with drainage basin hydrological process (Rastogi and Sharma 1976 ).

Drainage basin networks exhibit temporal and spatial variations. Such runoff patterns change hydrological systems and significantly change both catchment inputs and output such as stream discharge, suspended sediment, solutes and litters, and watershed characters.

Hydrological behavior of the drainage basin is used to design appropriate type of soil and water management system, prior work, erosion prone area, flood analysis, and selection of appropriate site for different water infrastructures (Dutta and Sharma 2002 ; Waikar and Nilawar 2014 ).

The drainage basins are also appropriate to consider the onsite and offsite ecology. As hydrology, water that flows in and out of the basin will deposit and pick up various elements such as sediment, nutrients, and pollutants (Oyegoke and Ifeadi 2008 ). They can affect both onsite and offsite ecology of the basin. Therefore, investigating the drainage basin process is the potential to understand the movement of water within the hydrologic cycle.

Investigating drainage pattern of the Gilgel Abay watershed which affects the hydrological process using RS and GIS tool is the objective of this paper. Understanding the drainage basin hydrology is a vital to prior and design proper type of soil and water conservation work.

Materials and methods

Description of study area.

The study area (Gilgel Abay) is located in the Lake Tana Basin, upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia (Fig.  1 ). It is one of the largest contributing basins of the Lake Tana. The study watershed is located between latitude 10.56° to 11.22° N and longitude 36.44° to 37.03° E. The contributing area of the watershed is 3786 km 2 with the longest path of the flow of 141 km. The higher elevation ranges are located at the southeast corner, while the remaining area is relatively uniform. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) shows that the elevation of the Upper Gilgel Abay varies from 1695 m to3543 m a.m.s.l. The main rainy season of the watershed is from June to September, while the remaining months are dry. It receives annual rainfall between 1200 and 2400 mm. The average minimum and maximum annual temperatures vary between 3.4 and 33 °C from different meteorological stations located in the watershed. Generally speaking, the months of March through May are the hottest month, whereas the lowest temperatures occur during December and January. The upper part of the watershed is steeper slope which is about 70°, while the bottom part of the watershed toward the outlet is gentle slope and about 0°. The main land covers in the Gilgel Abay catchment are grassland, marshland, cultivated land, forest and grassland with frequent patches of shrubs, woods, trees, and cultivated lands. Cultivated land is the most dominated one.

Source: Study watershed is delineated from the DEM and the other shapefiles are obtained from the Ethiopian map server agency ( http://www.ethiogis-mapserver.org/about-us.html ))

Study area, Lake Tana and Blue Nile Basin and Ethiopia map (

Research methodology

To meet the objective of this study, integrating GIS and remote sensing techniques was used to analyze the morphometric characteristics of the watershed. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) was used to digitize study watershed and generate drainage pattern. A number of procedures were used to delineate watershed and generate stream networks. Arc GIS 10.1 software was used to analyze the morphologic characteristics of the basin. The study watershed and stream networks are automatically generated from SRTM DEM using arc toolbox in GIS 10.1. The overall methodology used to delineate and generate stream networks is as follows.

Collect and re-projected the DEM data to UTM zone-37 N coordinate system using ArcGIS arc toolbox.

The DEM filled out the pits using fill tool under Spatial Analyst tools of Hydrology option

The flow direction and accumulation map of the watershed was created using flow direction and accumulation tools of the same spatial analyst tools of hydrology option.

Raster calculation operation was carried out using the threshold value of 5000 to generate the stream networks, and correct location of watershed outlet was selected.

The watershed boundary was plotted, and the area of the watershed, length and order of the streams were calculated.

Steam ordering is usually the first step to analyze the drainage basin. It is defining the steam size based on hierarchy of its tributary. For stream ordering, Horton ( 1932 ) law slightly modified by Strahler ( 1952 ) was used. Total number of each order streams with its length were analyzed and recorded (Fig.  2 ).

Watershed delineation process using ArcGIS arc toolbox

The fundamental parameters, namely stream length, area, perimeter, number of streams, and basin length, are derived from drainage layer. The values of morphometric parameters, namely bifurcation ratio, drainage density, stream frequency, form factor, texture ratio, elongation ratio, and circularity ratio, were computed to analyze the behavior of the drainage basin based on the formulae suggested by Horton ( 1945 ), Miller ( 1953 ), Schumn ( 1956 ), Strahler ( 1964 ).

Result and discussion

The various morphometric parameters of the Gilgel Abay basin analyzed using GIS 10.1 are presented below.

Stream network generation

Stream networks delineated from DEM using ArcGIS Hydrology, Spatial Analyst tools are depicted (Fig.  3 ). The delineated streams are compared with the slope of the watershed. The slope of the watershed is steep in the upper part of the watershed and smoothly gentle in the downstream part of the watershed (Fig.  3 ). Large numbers of streams with short in length are generated at the steep slope, and less amount of long streams are delineated in the gentle part of the watershed, indicating that undulating topography is more susceptible to flooding and soil erosion.

Contour line and stream networks of the study watershed

Linear aspects

The linear aspects of morphometric analysis of basin including stream order, stream length, stream length ratio, and bifurcation ratio are discussed below.

Stream order (So)

The stream order or water body order is a positive whole number used in geomorphology and hydrology to indicate the level of branching in a river system. There are various types of stream ordering technique (Horton 1945 ), (Strahler 1952 ). Strahler’s system which is slightly modified the Horton’s method was used to analyze the stream order in this study. The smallest (un-branched) streams are first order and where the two first-order streams join together, they form second-order and two second-order streams come together to change to third order and so on, whereas two different levels of streams come together; they will remain as the highest one. The Gilgel Abay basin is the fifth-order stream. The total of 662 streams were identified, of which 511 streams are first order, 111 streams are second order, 30 are third order, 9 streams are fourth, and 1 stream is fifth order (Table 1 ). The study of properties of stream network is essential to understand basin hydrological process. Gilgel Abay streams are middle reach streams which host cold water fish species such as trout if well-shaded or fed by significant spring sources. Even though Lake Tana is one of fresh lakes and many communities livelihood is through fishing due to that Gilgel Abay is one major contributing stream, the Gilgel Abay is much more likely than headwater streams to be impacted by both point and non-point sources of pollution. The drainage networks of the watershed have nonlinear relationships as most drainage network property.

Stream length (S l )

Stream length is also one of the most potential parameters to understand the hydrological features of the basin. Many number of streams with relatively small in length are observed in steep slope and finer texture of the basin. Longer length of streams is generally indicative of flatter catchment. Generally, cumulative length of stream segment is maximum in first order and decreases the length with increasing the stream order (Table 1 ). The total number and length of Gilgel Abay stream were determined with the help of GIS 10.1 software. Stream characteristics of the watershed agreed with Horton’s law of stream length, which states that the cumulative stream length tends to form a geometric series beginning with the mean segment length of first order and increase according to the constant length ratio (Horton 1932 , 1945 ). The relationship between stream order and their cumulative length examined is depicted in Table 1 . The change of streams between orders indicates that flowing is from high altitude, lithological variation and from steep slope to flatter land.

Bifurcation ratio (Br)

Bifurcation ratio is the basic parameter to explain the stream patterns of the basin as the patterns are highly linked with the watershed topology and climate condition. It indicates the shape of the basin and understanding the runoff behavior of the watershed, and it is a useful measure to flooding prone area. High bifurcation ratio indicates short time of concentration, and the probability of flooding will be high. The Gilgel Abay mean bifurcation ratio is 5.16 which is larger than standard bifurcation ratio (Table 1 ). The bifurcation ratio varies between 2 in flat and rolling surface to 4 or 5 in mountainous or highly dissected drainage basins. Minimum bifurcation ratio indicates that the basin is more flat or rolling drainage basins. The study watershed is highly susceptible to flooding due to high bifurcation ratio.

Aerial aspects

It deals with the total projected area with upon contributing overland flow to the channel segment in different stream order. It comprises drainage density, drainage texture, stream frequency, form factor, circularity ratio, and elongation ratio.

Drainage density (Dd)

Drainage density is one of the parameters which affects the hydrological process of the watershed. It is defined as the ratio of the total length of the stream over the contributing area (Pallard et al. 2008 , 2009 ). Drainage density potentially affects both time of concentration and magnitude of the flow. High drainage density implies increase in flood peaks, whereas there is decrease in flood level in low drainage density (Pallard et al. 2009 ). It is because long concentration time allows more opportunities to infiltrate and distributing through time the flow. Generally drainage density and flood volume have direct relation. Drainage density of the study area is 0.6 km −1 (Table 2 ) indicating low drainage densities are observed. The moderate drainage density indicates the basin is highly permeable subsoil and vegetative cover (Nag 1998 ).

Stream frequency (Fs)

It is the total number of stream segments per unit area of the basin. Stream frequency is positive relation with drainage density. The stream frequency of the study watershed is 0.2.

Texture ratio (T)

The watershed characteristics such as slope, soil type, climate, rainfall, vegetation, and infiltration capacity will affect the texture ratio of the watershed. The more the drainage texture, the more will be dissection and erosion. It is the ratio of the total number of stream segment per perimeter of the watershed. The texture ratio of the Gilgel Abay watershed is 1.17 (Table 2 ). It is categorized as moderate in nature.

Form factor (Ff)

Form factor is essential to explain the flow property of drainage basin. It is computed by dividing basin area by square of the basin length. When the value of form factor decreases, the basin will come more elongated. The smaller the form factor with more elongated shape, low runoff will generate with long runoff duration, whereas rounded-shape watershed with high value of form factor experiences high runoff with short time of concentration and is highly sensitive to flooding. The maximum threshold value of form factor is less than 0.7854 (Waikar and Nilawar 2014 ). The form factor ratio value for this study area is 0.44 which indicates lower value of form factor and thus the basin is with low pick flow and longer duration due to elongated basin (Table 2 ).

Circulatory ratio (Rc)

As other morphometric parameters, circulatory ratio is an helpful assessment to understand flood hazard. With increase in the Rc value, there is an increase in the flood level and susceptibility to flood hazards at pick time at the outlet of the basin. It is the ratio of the area of the basin to the area of the circle having same circumference as the basin perimeter (Miller 1953 ). The Rc value indicates the shape of the basin; when the Rc value increases, the shape of the basin becomes more rounded and short flow duration is high potential to flooding at the outlet point. The Rc value of the Gilgel Abay is 0.15 which indicates that the basin is elongated and less susceptible to flooding (see Table 2 ).

Elongation ratio (Re)

Re indicates the shape of the basin. It is ratio of diameter of a circle of the same area as the basin to the maximum basin length. When the Re value becomes increasing, the basin will be more circular and highly susceptible to flooding due to short time of concentration and vice versa. The Re value of the study area is 0.49 indicating the basin is an elongated and less probable to flooding as well as moderate to slightly steep slope.

GIS and remote sensing technique is a powerful tool to assess the morphometric parameter of basin hydrology. It helps to understand the basin hydrology to potential prioritization of sub-watershed, effective soil and water conservation work, natural resource management and flood risk analysis. The morphometric analysis was carried out in Gilgel Abay watershed in Lake Tana Basin, upper Blue Nile Basin. The result showed that the basin indicating susceptible to flooding and soil erosion at the upper part of the basin whereas more runoff is infiltrated and sediment deposited at the downstream part since it is gentle and high ground water potential is observed indicating slightly susceptible to flooding and soil erosion in downstream part of the watershed. Evaluation morphometric analysis of the basin using GIS and remote sensing helped us to understand terrain parameters such as infiltration capacity, runoff, lithology and relief which affect the hydrological process of the basin. More studies with high-resolution satellite data with the help of ground-based observed data will help us to better understand and design more effective watershed management system.

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Alemsha Bogale

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Bogale, A. Morphometric analysis of a drainage basin using geographical information system in Gilgel Abay watershed, Lake Tana Basin, upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia. Appl Water Sci 11 , 122 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-021-01447-9

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Received : 01 May 2020

Accepted : 09 June 2021

Published : 24 June 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-021-01447-9

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