Abstracto

Geographical Information System Based Morphometric Analysis of Halia Drainage Area, Nalgonda District, Andhra Pradesh, India

Sarala.C

Morphometric analysis is important in any hydrological investigation and it is inevitable in development and management of drainage basin. The linking of the geomorphological parameters with the hydrological characteristics of the basin provides a simple way to understand the hydrologic behaviour of the different basins particularly of the ungauged basins because the hydrologic and geomorphic effects of natural and human process with in a catchment are focused at its outlet. The development of morphometric techniques was a major advance in the quantitative description of the geometry of the drainage basins and its network which helps in characterizing the drainage network. The geomorphological properties which are important from the hydrological studies point of view include the linear, aerial and relief aspect of the watersheds. In the present study a morphometric analysis of Halia river drainage area has been carried out using geoprocessing techniques in GIS. This technique is found relevant for the extraction of river basin and its drainage networks. The extracted drainage network was classified according to Strahler’s system of classification and it reveals that the terrain exhibits dendritic to sub-dendritic drainage pattern. 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 drainage area were computed. Hence, it is concluded that GIS techniques proved to be a competent tool in morphometric analysis.