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Environmental Earth Sciences ISSN 1866-6280Volume 68Number 7 Environ Earth Sci (2013) 68:1967-1977DOI 10.1007/s12665-012-1884-8

Morphometric analysis of Morar RiverBasin, Madhya Pradesh, India, usingremote sensing and GIS techniques

Prafull Singh, Jay Krishna Thakur &U. C. Singh

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Morphometric analysis of Morar River Basin, Madhya Pradesh,India, using remote sensing and GIS techniques

Prafull Singh • Jay Krishna Thakur •

U. C. Singh

Received: 21 June 2011 / Accepted: 29 July 2012 / Published online: 12 August 2012

� Springer-Verlag 2012

Abstract Hydrogeological mapping and drainage analy-

sis can form an important tool for groundwater develop-

ment. Assessment of drainage and their relative parameters

have been quantitatively carried out for the Morar River

Basin, which has made positive scientific contribution for

the local people of area for the sustainable water resource

development and management. Geographical Information

System has been used for the calculation and delineation of

the morphometric characteristics of the basin. The den-

dritic type drainage network of the basin exhibits the

homogeneity in texture and lack of structural control. The

stream order ranges from first to sixth order. The drainage

density in the area has been found to be low which indi-

cates that the area possesses highly permeable soils and

low relief. The bifurcation ratio varies from 2.00 to 5.50

and the elongation ratio (0.327) reveals that the basin

belongs to the elongated shaped basin category. The results

of this analysis would be useful in determining the effect of

catchment characteristics such as size, shape, slope of the

catchment and distribution of stream net work within the

catchment.

Keywords Drainage morphometry � GIS � Morar River

Basin � India

Introduction

Water demand is growing as the world population is

growing and more and more urbanization is taking place

worldwide. On the other hand, water resources are limited,

increasing demand for various water uses and decreasing

access to good-quality water as most of the nearby and

good-quality sources have already been overexploited

(Sharma and Vairavamoorthy 2009; Diwakar and Thakur

2012).

Urban sprawling and population growth in countries like

India, leads to increasing stress on water resources, because

of growing demand for drinking, irrigation and industrial

needs (Singh and al 2011a). The increase in the usage of

water has affected both surface and groundwater supplies,

resulting in an acute water crisis (Thakur et al. 2011). In

addition, low-intensity and erratic monsoons create further

shortages of surface-water supply. As a result, the demand

for groundwater resources has increased tremendously

from year to year, causing a drastic decline of groundwater

levels. Over-exploitation of groundwater has led to the

drying up of the aquifer zones in several parts of the

country. It is, therefore, essential to increase the recharge

of the basin for the water management programme (Ellis

and Revitt 2010; Rao 2008; Eyquem 2007). Assessment of

the characteristics of the drainage basin using quantitative

morphometric analysis can provide information about the

hydrological nature of the rocks exposed within the

drainage basin. A drainage map of a basin provides a

reliable index of permeability of the rocks and gives an

indication of the yield of the basin. The significance of

P. Singh (&)

Amity Institute of Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing,

Amity University, Sector 125, Noida 201303, UP, India

e-mail: singhgeoscience@rediffmail.com

J. K. Thakur

School of Environmental Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University,

New Delhi 110067, India

U. C. Singh

Schools of Studies in Earth Science, Jiwaji University,

Gwalior 474011, MP, India

123

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DOI 10.1007/s12665-012-1884-8

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morphometric analysis of drainage pattern and their inter-

relationship between rock type, structures and drainage

network in different parts of India has been reported

number of workers such as Vaidyanadhan (1962), Subra-

manyan (1974), Sankara and Rao (1985), Moeen and Babu

(1988), Raju et al. (1995), Rao and Babu (1995), Pakh-

mode et al. (2003), Sreedevi et al. (2005), John et al.

(2006), and Manu and Anirudhan (2008).

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, comparing

the characteristic of several drainage networks, and

examining the effect of variables such as lithology, rock

structure, rainfall, etc., (Esper 2008; Magesh et al. 2011;

Bali et al. 2012).

The drainage network generally expresses the prevailing

climate, geology, relief, and tectonic framework of a basin

and the interrelationship between basic drainage parame-

ters (Thomas et al. 2012). Geology, relief, and climate are

the primary determinants of running water ecosystem

functioning at the basin scale (Mesa 2006). Recently many

researchers have attempted to generate more precise data

using Geographical Information System (GIS) tools in

different part of the sphere for automated determination of

drainage basin parameters; it has been shown to be effi-

cient, time saving and ideal application of GIS technology.

Some of the recent workers such as Grohmann (2004),

Gangalakunta (2004), Godchild and Haining (2004),

Grohmann et al. (2007), Korkalainen et al. (2007), Yu and

Wei (2008), Hlaing et al. (2008), and Javed et al. (2009)

arrived at the conclusion that GIS is a powerful tool for

evaluating drainage characteristics and continuous moni-

toring. Therefore, more and more data from drainage net-

works of diverse lithology, climate, and tectonic

frameworks are necessary for the meaningful interpretation

of the morphometric parameters.

In the recent past, many researchers have found that GIS

is important tool for analysis of drainage characteristics

from different data sources (Thomasa et al. 2010; Pate and

Dholakia 2010; Kar et al. 2009; Pankaj and Kumar 2009;

Singh PK and Singh UC 2009; Das and Mukherjee 2005).

The foremost advantages of the GIS technique for

drainage analysis over conventional methods of analysis lie

primarily in the fact that the GIS is capable of managing

and processing spatial information in large amounts, effi-

ciently and accurately. They are often viewed as essential

components for management enabling decision-makers to

make more effective and useful decisions (Burrough and

McDonnell 1998). In the present an integrated application

of remote sensing and GIS techniques are used while the

analysis of drainage parameters field based hydrological

conditions are fully taken into consideration but the

correlation of actual groundwater conditions through the

study of hydrogeological conditions and their hydrological

inferences are generally lacking in most of the previous

studies. Finally, combined remote sensing and GIS

approach is amenable to quickly evaluating drainage and

selection criteria as well as assessing post-implementation

outcomes for detailed hydrological studies.

The development of computer-aided mapping tech-

niques for natural resources especially in mapping and

integration of wide range of geoinformation are the most

important progress in natural science. The advantages of

this GIS-based approach over the conventional methods

are its ability to create, manipulate, store, display, ana-

lyze, and use spatial data much quicker and precisely. The

present study employed the same concept on a small river

basin and focuses on the physical characteristics of the

drainage system in order to evaluate the linear, areal, and

relief characteristics. The consequences obtained in the

present study based on drainage basin analysis provide

information for an enhanced perceptive of the hydrologi-

cal characteristics of the basin. The aim of present work is

to investigate and identify various drainage parameters to

understand the geometry of the basin for the conservation

and management of water resources in a sustainable

manner through the use and application of GIS techniques

in morphometric analysis. The main goal of the present

work is to evaluate the various hydrological parameters,

which are important for the water resource management

plan within the basin, and finds the alternative solutions

for water harvesting in the study area through the con-

struction of various suitable structures (check dam, Stor-

age tanks, Recharge shaft) based on observed calculations.

The present work also demonstrates the capability of

satellite-based data and GIS in river morphometry over

conventional approaches.

Study area

The study area lies between 26�500 to 26�2500N latitude and

78�1000 to 78�2000E longitude from 160 to 360 m average

mean sea level (AMSL) and is located in the northeastern

part of the Gwalior district in the central India with an area

about 405 km2 (Fig. 1). It is covered in the Survey of India

(SOI) toposheet numbers 54J/3, J/4, J/7 and J/8 on 1:50,000

scale. The climate of the basin is extreme with hot sum-

mers and cold winters. It experiences southwestern mon-

soon rains in June–September with an annual rainfall of

\600 mm. May is the hottest month with a maximum

temperature of 45 �C and minimum temperature 4 �C.

Gwalior is one of the erstwhile princely cities with popu-

lation of over 1.2 million having semi-arid climate marked

by extreme temperatures and erratic rainfall patterns. The

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climate overall is dry except during the south-west mon-

soon season (June–October). Bore wells are the major

source of water supply for drinking, agricultural, and other

activities. Depleting groundwater levels are common and

the condition being further aggravated by frequent drought-

like situations. The incessant water scarcity and the ever-

increasing demand for agriculture and industries have put

immense stresses on the limited groundwater resources in

the area and have pronounced the need for locating addi-

tional sources.

Fig. 1 Location map of Morar River Basin in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

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Hydrogeological frameworks

The intracratonic Gwalior Basin is situated on the north-

western fringe of Bundelkhand massif. The Gwalior group

of litho units rest unconformably over Bundelkhand granite

and comprise basal arenaceous Par formation overlain by

volcano-sedimentary sequence of Morar formation con-

sisting of ferruginous shale with bands of chert, jasper and

limestone. Gwalior group of rocks are similar to the Bijawar

group. The sequence at Bijawar dips due south, whereas at

Gwalior dips due north. Vindhyan strata also show the

Gwalior Basin like sequence (Singh et al. 2011b). These are

dominated by quartzites at the base, ferruginous shale with

chert and Jasper pointing to shallow water conditions and

rapid development of basin formation followed by trans-

gression. Gwalior group shows coarse to fine doleritic sills

and dykes at the base of the Gwalior Fort. The rocks in the

study area belong from Archaean to Precambrian group of

hard rocks consisting with Sandstone, shale, Quartzite.

Doleritic dykes and recent group of alluvium deposits.

Granite is the basement rock of the study area. The rocks of

the area are divided into two formations, the older Par

formation and younger Morar Formation. This group of

rocks is overlain by upper Vindhyans that are the youngest

rocks in the region. Based on interpretation of satellite data,

fieldwork and published geological map of the region, the

geological map of the study area has been prepared and

shown in Fig. 2. The geological succession of the basin is

shown in Fig. 3. Hydrologically the weathered and frac-

tured zones form the principal aquifer in consolidated for-

mations. The Gwalior Group of rocks overlie Vindhyan

group of rocks; they make the youngest rocks in the region

with Kaimur sandstone. The weathered zones of shale,

sandstone, and alluvial deposits which are an aggregation of

medium to coarse-grained unconsolidated materials form

principal groundwater reservoir in the study area. The

thickness of this zone is generally more in the northern

portion of the watershed and in undulating plains. In gen-

eral, 2–3 water bearing formations occur within a depth of

100 m in the study area. The water yielding capacity of

Fig. 2 Regional geological map of the Gwalior Basin, Madhya Pradesh, India

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rocks largely depends on the extent of fracturing, openness,

size of fracture, and nature of the interconnections between

fractures. The area is covered by alluvium, sandstone, and

shale terrains and the occurrence of groundwater in differ-

ent formations varies with the rock type. The thickness of

alluvium varies between 10 and 30 m. It is the most

extensive aquifer in the area. Only one, i.e., phreatic aquifer

comprising fine to medium and coarse-grained sand often

associated with clay having thickness of 2–3 m is encoun-

tered between 4 and 30 MBGL. The contact of alluvium

with shale or sandstone form productive yielding of 2–20

LPS. Isolated patches of shale and sandstone of Gwalior

group are extending generally east west in the northern part

of Morar block. Groundwater occurs mostly in unconfined

conditions, but at places in semi-confined conditions also.

The yield potential in this formation ranges between 1 and 8

LPS. During survey in the area, three pumping tests have

been carried out on the dug wells and tube wells. The

transmissivity in the alluvium area is sufficient to get 2–10

LPS yield. It is observed that specific capacity of wells in

the area ranges from 1.93 to 29.70/min/m.

Methodology

Assessment of the drainage network of a basin using the

quantitative morphometric analysis gives information about

the hydrological background of the rock formation exposed

within the drainage basin. Morphometric analysis of a basin

provides an indication about permeability, storage capacity of

the rocks and gives an indication of the yield of the basin.

Analysis of drainage basins involves the evaluation of drain-

age parameters such as bifurcation ratio, length ratio, drainage

density, drainage frequency, length of overland flow and

stream frequency. Hydrogeological observations, integrated

with drainage analysis, provide useful clues regarding broad

relationships among the geological framework of the basin.

The different applied methods to evaluate drainage

parameters by remote sensing and GIS show an obvious

discrepancy in results, in spite of the similarity in the used

techniques and tools. Thus, the review of past literature

revealed that a standard methodology for drainage basin

delineation and their analysis. In the present an integrated

application of remote sensing and GIS techniques are used

while the analysis of drainage parameters field based

hydrological conditions are fully taken into consideration,

but the correlation of actual groundwater conditions

through the study of hydrogeological conditions and their

hydrological inferences are generally lacking in most of the

previous studies. Finally, combined remote sensing and

GIS approach is amenable to quickly evaluating drainage

and selection criteria as well as assessing post-implemen-

tation outcomes for detailed hydrological studies.

Therefore, the results reveal different levels of agree-

ment using morphometric analysis, which were supposed to

be different from one region to another. Factors controlling

groundwater storage are different in space and time, and the

majority of these factors depend on the following parame-

ters: (1) rainfall availability as the source of water; (2)

drainage characteristics have a role in the distribution of

runoff and indicate an infiltration scheme and it governs the

behavior of water flow on terrain surface vertically and

horizontally; (3) rock type for which the lithologic character

governs the flow and storage management; (4) slope is

another influencing factor, and it controls water flow

energy, which plays a role in facilitating water flow in the

basin. The morphometric analysis can be achieved through

measurements of linear, areal and relief aspects of basin.

The required necessary data sources for morphometric

analysis were carried out through the use of Indian Remote

Group Formation Lithology

Recent Alluvium, Sand silt, laterites, clay, kankar, pebbles,

unconsolidated sediments etc

Kaimur group Medium to coarse grained sandstone.

--------------------------------------------------- Unconformity --------------------------------------------

Morar Formation Shales with limestone bands, ferruginous

chert with iron ore, dolerite dykes

Gwalior Group ------------------------------------- Unconformity -----------------------------------------

Par Formation Orthoquarzite and sandstone ,

sandstone with alternation of shale.

---------------------------------------------- Unconformity --------------------------------------------------

Archaean Bundelkhand Granite Granites and Granite

Gneisses with associated schist, pegmatite veins,

basic dykes and quartz reef

Fig. 3 Geological succession

of the Basin, Madhya Pradesh,

India

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Sensing Satellite (IRS-1C) LISS III and PAN merged data

and SOI Topographical Sheets (Table 1) of the area. The

SOI toposheets and digital satellite data were geometrically

rectified and georeferenced by taking ground control points

(GCPs) by using UTM projection and WGS 84 datum.

Further, all geocoded images were mosaic using Erdas

Imagine 8.6 image processing software.

Digitization work has been carried out for entire analysis

of basin morphometry using GIS software (Arc GIS

9.3).The order was given to each stream by following

Strahler (1964) stream ordering technique.

The parameters like the number and lengths of streams

of each different order; drainage area, basin perimeter and

total basin length, and width were calculated using ARC

GIS software, drainage density, drainage frequency, shape,

form factor, circulatory ratio, and elongation ratio, etc.,

were calculated from these parameters. The methodologies

adopted for the computation of morphometric parameters

are given in Table 2.

Results and discussions

Quantitative description of drainage network, basin char-

acteristics, and landform analysis has been carried out for

the Morar River Basin. Various parameters like the number

and lengths of streams of different order, drainage area,

basin perimeter and maximum basin lengths were calcu-

lated after cleaning and then topology building of the

drainage layer in GIS software, from these parameters

various drainage characteristics are calculated such as

bifurcation ratio (Rb), drainage density (Dd), stream fre-

quency (Fs) circulatory ratio (Rc), elongation ratios (Re) for

basin evolution studies.

The understanding of streams in a drainage system

constitutes the drainage pattern, which in turn replicates

mainly structural/lithologic controls of the underlying

rocks. The study area possesses dendritic drainage patterns,

despite stream lengths and other hydrological properties.

They are generally characterized by a treelike branching

system, which indicates the homogenous and uniformity.

The designation of stream order is the first step in

morphometric characterization of the basin. In the present

paper, the stream ordering has been ranked based on

hierarchic ranking method proposed by Strahler (1964),

Table 1 Data used for morphometric analysis of Morar River Basin,

Madhya Pradesh, India

Type of data/

software

Details Sources

IRS-ID LISS III

and PAN digital

format

Path/row: 97/53

Date: 22

February, 2008

National Remote Sensing

Center (NRSC),

Hyderabad, India

SOI toposheets Toposheet Nos.

54J/3, J/4, J/7

and J/8

Scale: 1:50,000

Survey of India (SOI),

Dehradun, India

Geological

quadrangle map

Scale: 1:250,000 Geological Survey of India,

Hyderabad, India

Table 2 Methodology adopted for computations of morphometric parameters

S.

no.

Morph metric

parameters

Formula

1 Stream order Hierarchical rank

2 Stream length Length of the stream

3 Mean stream length

(Lsm)

Lsm: Lu/Nu where, Lsm = mean stream length, Lu = total stream length of order ‘‘U’’

Nu = total no. of stream segments of order ‘‘U’’

4 Stream length ratio

(RL)

RL = Lu/Lu – 1 where, RL = stream length ratio, Lu = the total stream length of the order ‘‘U’’, Lu - 1 = the

total stream length of its next lower order

5 Stream frequency

(Fs)

Fs = Nu/A where, Fs = stream frequency, Nu = total no. of streams of all orders, A = area of basin

6 Drainage density

(Dd)

Dd = Lu/A where, D = drainage density, Lu = total stream length of all orders, A = area of basin

7 Drainage texture

(Rt)

Rt = Nu/P where, Rt = drainage texture, Nu = total no, of streams of all orders, P = perimeter (km)

8 Bifurcation ratio

(Rb)

Rb = Nu/Nu ? 1 where, Rb = bifurcation ratio, Nu = total number of stream segments of order ‘‘U’’,

Nu ? 1 = number of segments of the next higher order

9 Form factor Rf = A/Lb2 where, Rf = form factor, A = area of basin (km), Lb

2 = square of the basin length

10 Elongation ratio (Re) Re = Re 2v (A/pi)/Lb where, Re = elongation ratio, A = area of basin (km2), pi = ‘‘pi’’ value, Lb = basin length

11 Circularity ratio (Rc) Rc = 4 9 pi 9 A/P2 where, Rc = circularity ratio, pi = pi value, A = area of basin, P2 = square of the perimeter

12 Relief ratio (Rh) Rh = H/Lb where, Rh = relief ratio, H = total relief of the basin in km, Lb = basin length

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from the digitized streams. The order wise stream numbers

and stream length of the basin is given in Table 4 and it is

designated as first to sixth orders, there is a decrease in

stream frequency as the stream order increases and maxi-

mum frequency is in the case of first order stream. Figure 4

shows the drainage network map of the basin with stream

orders. The information of stream order number is useful in

relating to the size of its contributing basin and based on a

hierarchic ranking of streams. Streams orders of the basin

were counted and their lengths from mouth to drainage

divide are measured with the help of GIS softwares based

on the law proposed by (Horton 1945). It is found that the

total length of streams segment is maximum in the first

order streams and decreases as the stream order increases.

This change in stream may indicate flowing of streams

from high altitude, lithological variations, and moderately

steep slopes. The length of streams in the Morar Basin is

about 479 km. The mean stream length (Lsm) and their ratio

have been also calculated (Table 3). The length ratio gives

a general idea about the relative permeability of the rock

formations in a basin. More exclusively, it indicates if there

is a major change in the hydrological characteristics of the

underlying rock surfaces over areas of the consecutive

stream orders.

The relationship between the bifurcation ratio and the

stream length ratio is determined by hydrogeologic, phys-

iographic, and geological characteristics. Value of total

length, mean length, and length ratio of different stream

orders of the Morar Basin area are shown in (Table 4).

The term bifurcation ratio (Rb) may be defined as ratio

of the number of stream segments of a given order to the

number of segments of the next higher. The bifurcation

ratio values ranging between 3 and 5 for the Morar River

Basin and are characteristics of minimum structural dis-

turbances (Strahler 1964). The mean bifurcation ratio of the

basin is observed as 3.72. This indicates that the drainage

pattern of the basin has not been affected by the structural

disturbances (Table 3).

Stream frequency (Fs) or channel frequency is the total

number of stream segments of all orders per unit area

(Horton 1932). Fs values indicate positive correlation with

the drainage density of the basin and suggesting that

Fig. 4 Drainage map of Morar

River Basin, Madhya Pradesh,

India

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increase in stream population with respect to increase in

drainage density.

The observed stream frequency (Fs) is 1.88 for the basin,

exhibit positive correlation with the drainage density value

of the area, indicating the increase in stream population

with respect to increase in drainage density (Table 4).

Horton (1932) has introduced the drainage density as an

expression to indicate the closeness of spacing of channels.

The drainage density of the study area have been calculated

and the value is 1.18 (Table 4). The value of Dd suggests

that area have low drainage density. The low drainage

density is likely to result in the area of highly resistant of

permeable subsoil material under dense vegetation and low

relief (Nautiyal 1994). High drainage density is the resul-

tant of weak of impermeable subsurface material, sparse

vegetation and mountainous relief.

Drainage texture (Rt) is one of the important concepts of

geomorphology which means the relative spacing of

drainage lines. According to Horton (1945), RT is the total

number of stream segments of all orders per perimeter of

that area.

Smith (1950) has classified drainage density into five

different classes. The drainage density less than 2 indicates

very coarse, between 2 and 4 is related to coarse, between 4

and 6 is moderate, between 6 and 8 is fine and greater than

8 is very fine drainage texture. The observed, drainage

texture is 6.29 indicates the moderate drainage texture. The

moderate drainage texture and lower value of drainage

density (1.18) indicates the presence of highly resistant

permeable material with low relief (Table 4).

According to Horton (1932), form factor (Rf) may be

defined as the ratio of basin area to square of the basin

length. The observed form factor value of the basin is 0.264

suggesting that the shape of the basin is elongated

(Table 3). The elongated basin with low form factor indi-

cates that the basin will have a flatter peak of flow for

longer duration.

Schumm (1956) defined the elongation ratio (Re) as the

ratio between the diameter of the circle of the same area as

the drainage basin and the maximum length of the basin.

The values of Re generally vary from 0.6 to 1.0 over a wide

variety of climatic and geologic conditions. Values close to

1.0 are typical of regions of very low relief, whereas values

in the range 0.6–0.8 are usually associated with high relief

and steep ground slope (Strahler 1964). These values can

be grouped into three categories namely (a) circular ([0.9),

(b) oval (0.9–0.8), (c) elongated (\0.7). The elongation

ratio of the basin is 0.327, which suggests that the basin

belongs to the elongated shape basin and low relief

(Table 4).

Miller (1953) defined a dimensionless circularity ratio

(Rc) as the ratio of the basin area to the area of circle

having the same perimeter as the basin. Rc influenced by

the length and frequency of streams, geological structures,

land use/land cover, climate, relief and slope of the basin.

Circularity ratios range 0.4–0.5 which indicates strongly

elongated and highly permeable homogenous geology and

the observed circularity ratio of the basin is 0.345 (Table 4)

which indicates that the basin is elongated in shape, has

low discharge of runoff and is highly permeability of the

subsoil condition.

The elevation difference between the highest and the

lowest points on the valley floor of a basin is known as the

total relief of that basin. The relief ratio (Rh) of maximum

relief to horizontal distance along the longest dimension of

the basin parallel to the principal drainage line is termed as

a relief ratio (Schumm 1956). It measures the overall

steepness of a drainage basin and is an indicator of the

Table 3 Linear aspects of the

drainage basinStream

order (w)

No. of

streams

(Nu)

Bifurcation

ratio (RbF)

Mean

bifurcation

ratio (Rbm)

Total length of

streams (km)

Mean length of

the streams (km)

Length

ratio (RL)

I 501 303.49

II 206 2.43 89

III 42 4.90 3.73 29.06 0.628 5.38

IV 11 3.82 8.88

V 2 5.5 9.41

Vi 1 2 39.50

Table 4 Areal aspects of the drainage basin

Basin area

(km2)

Perimeter

(km)

Width

(km)

Form

factor

Elongation

ratio (Re)

Circularity

ratio (Rc)

Drainage

density (km)

Stream

frequency

Drainage

texture

Relief

ratio

404.49 121.27 13.91 0.264 0.327 0.345 1.18 1.88 6.29 0.04

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intensity of the erosion processes operation on the slope of

the basin. In the present study, the Rh value of the basin

0.04 shows the major portion of the basin having gentle

slope (Table 4).

Hydrological inferences

The quantitative analysis of morphometric parameters is

found to be of immense utility in river basin evaluation,

soil and water conservation and natural resources man-

agement. The morphometric analysis carried out in the

Morar River Basin shows that the basin has low relief and

elongated shape.

The linear pattern of the graphical representation indi-

cates the homogeneous weathering erosional characteristic

of the study area. Elongation ratio, circulatory ratio and form

factor values show that the basin has an elongated shape,

which indicates the low runoff and flatter peak of flow.

Drainage network of the basin exhibits as mainly den-

dritic type, which indicates the homogeneity in texture and

lack of structural control. The linear pattern of the graph-

ical representation indicates the weathering erosional

characteristics of the area under the study. The morpho-

metric parameters evaluated using GIS helped us to

understand various terrain parameters such as infiltration

capacity, runoff, etc. Similar studies in conjunction with

high-resolution satellite data help in better understanding

the landforms and their processes and drainage pattern

demarcations for basin area planning and management.

The morphometric analysis provides information on the

variation in the permeability of the aquifer units exposed in

within the river basin. Artificial recharge and runoff har-

vesting in the area for groundwater development manage-

ment are selected based on small-scale topographic maps.

Recharge sites are particularly unsuccessfully located or

because of these sites are often located in natural ground-

water discharge areas. Drainage analysis form positive

contribution through the advantage of remote sensing and

GIS-based tool in selecting artificial recharge sites. These

analyzed drainage parameters provide comparative indices

of the permeability of rock surfaces in various parts of a

drainage basin. If these information are integrated with the

others hydrological characteristics of the drainage basin,

the strategy of siting recharge and water-harvesting mea-

sures provides better groundwater development and man-

agement plan.

Conclusions

The morphometric analysis carried out for the Morar River

Basin confirms that the basin has low relief and elongated

shape. Drainage network of the basin exhibits as mainly

dendritic type, which indicates the homogeneity in texture

and lack of structural control and to understand various

terrain parameters such as nature of the bedrock, infiltration

capacity, runoff, etc. Lower drainage density and stream

frequency indicates high permeability rate of the subsur-

face formation. The observed drainage parameters reveal

for recharge-related measures and areas where surface-

water augmentation measures can be undertaken for the

water resource management.

Observations derived from the morphometric analysis of

Morar River Basin gives up-to-date information about

various factors such as morphological characteristic of the

basin and important hydrological parameters such as

bifurcation ratio, elongation ratio, drainage density, relief

ratio, and circulatory ratio which are responsible for the

river basin evaluation, watershed prioritization for soil/

water conservation, natural resources management and

groundwater potential targeting for efficient planning and

management.

This analysis can be used for site suitability analysis of

soil and water conservation structures development and

subsequently, these parameters were integrated with other

thematic information viz., land use/cover, land forms,

drainage, slope, and soil in the GIS domain to arrive a

decision regarding a suitable site for having soil and water

conservation structures (nala bund, check dam, and per-

colation tank, recharge shaft, etc.) in the area for ground-

water development and management.

The study reveals that GIS-based approach in quantita-

tive evaluation of drainage parameters and their influence

on landforms characteristics at the basin level are more

appropriate than the conventional methods. Thus, the study

shows that GIS techniques have efficient tools in delinea-

tion of the drainage pattern to understand terrain parame-

ters such as the infiltration capacity, surface run off, etc.,

which helps in better understanding the status of land form

and their processes, drainage management and evolution of

groundwater potential for watershed planning and man-

agement. This will be useful for soil and water conserva-

tion and is a positive scientific contribution for the people

of Morar River Basin area. This work will be useful for

natural resources management at micro-level of any terrain

for the sustainable development by planners and decision-

makers.

Acknowledgments Authors are thankful to the Head of Depart-

ment, School of Studies in Earth Science, Jiwaji University for pro-

viding working facilities. The first author expresses his gratefulness to

the Founder President Dr. Ashok K. Chauhan; Group vice Chancellor

Gen. K.J. Singh and Vice Chancellor Dr. Balvinder Shukla, Amity

University, Noida for constant encouragement. The first author also

thankful to Dr. Madhulika Singh, Director, Amity Institute of Geo-

informatics and Remote Sensing for her valuable suggestion and kind

cooperation. Thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewers for their

many helpful suggestions.

Environ Earth Sci (2013) 68:1967–1977 1975

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