GIS-Based Approach in Drainage Morphometric Analysis of Bharathapuzha River Basin, India

Aims: The paper aims to study about the river basin morphometry namely the physical, linear and aerial parameters for the basin.

Study Design: The Study has been carried out with the help of Geospatial techniques and statistical formulas.

Place and Duration of Study: Bharathapuzha river basin, Kerala, India between January 2018 to July 2018.

Methodology: The Study of River morphometry of Bharathapuzha River basin has been done with the help of SRTM satellite data. The downloaded data has been analyzed with the help of ARC GIS Software. The morphometric analysis has been carried out by dividing the basin into nine watersheds based on Water shed Atlas of India Prepared by Soil and Land Use board of India. Relief, Linear and areal parameters of the basin is calculated with the help of statistical formulas.

Results: Based on the analysis it is noted that there is not much difference in morphometric values except in some watersheds. Watershed number 5A2B5, 5A2B6 and 5A2B7 has highest drainage density, stream frequency, relief, relief ratio, ruggedness number, stream length ratio and lowest bifurcation ratio. These watersheds are characterized by highest surface runoff and erosion. The values of form factor, circulatory ratio and elongation ratio suggests that most of the watersheds are elongated and has high basin relief. The maximum stream order frequency is observed in case of first order streams and then for second order streams. Hence it is noted that there is decrease in stream frequency as stream order increases.

Conclusion: The mean bifurcation ratio of the Bharathapuza basin is 1.52 which indicates the whole basin is less effected by structural control. This present study is valuable for the erosion control, watershed management, land and water resource planning and future prospective related to runoff study.