THE CASE of the UPPER INDUS RIVER a Thesis Submitted to The
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CONSTRUCTION OF SEDIMENT BUDGETS IN LARGE SCALE DRAINAGE BASINS: THE CASE OF THE UPPER INDUS RIVER A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Geography and Planning University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Khawaja Faran Ali © Copyright Khawaja Faran Ali, November 2009. All rights reserved. PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of Geography and Planning University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5C8 Canada i ABSTRACT High rates of soil loss and high sediment loads in rivers necessitate efficient monitoring and quantification methodologies so that effective land management strategies can be designed. Constructing a sediment budget is a useful approach to address these issues. Quantifying a sediment budget using classical field-based techniques, however, is labour intensive and expensive for poorly gauged, large drainage basins. The availability of global environmental datasets in combination with GIS techniques provides an opportunity for studying large basins. Following this approach, a framework is presented for constructing sediment budgets for large, data-sparse drainage basins, which is applied to the mountainous upper Indus River basin in northern Pakistan. The methodological framework consists of five steps: (1) analyzing hydro- climatological data for dividing the drainage basin into characteristic regions, and calculating sediment yields; (2) investigation of major controls on sediment yields; (3) identification and mapping of sediment source areas by spatially distributed modelling of erosional processes; (4) spatially distributed modelling of sediment yields; and (5) carrying out the sediment budget balance calculation at the basin outlet. Further analysis carried out on the Indus data has enabled a better understanding of sediment dynamics in the basin. Analysis of the available hydro-climatological data indicates that the basin can be subdivided into three characteristic regions based on whether runoff production and subsequent sediment generation is controlled by temperature (Region 1, upper, glacierized sub-basins), precipitation caused by the monsoon and western disturbances (Region 3, lower sub-basins), or a combination of the two (Region 2, middle reach sub-basins). It is also demonstrated that contrary to the ii conventional model, the specific sediment yield increases markedly with drainage area along the Indus River. An investigation of major controls on specific sediment yield in the basin indicates that percent snow/ice cover is a major land cover control for specific sediment yield. Spatially distributed erosion modelling predictions indicate that 87% of the annual gross erosion takes place in the three summer months with greatest erosion potential concentrated in sub-basins with high relief and a substantial proportion of glacierized area. Lower erosion rates can be explained by the arid climate and low relief on the Tibetan Plateau, and by the dense vegetation and lower relief in the lower monsoon sub-region. The model predicts an average annual erosion rate of 3.2 mm a–1 or 868 Mt a–1. Spatially distributed sediment yield predictions made with coupled models of erosion and sediment delivery indicate that the Indus sub-basins generally show an increase of sediment delivery ratio with basin area. The predicted annual basin sediment yield is 244 Mt a–1 and the overall sediment delivery ratio in the basin is calculated as 0.28. The long-term mean annual sediment budget, based on mass balance, is characterized by a gross erosion of 762.9, 96.7 and 8.4 Mt, and a gross storage of 551.4, 66.1, and 6.5 Mt in the upper, middle, and lower regions of the basin, respectively. The sediment budget indicates that the major sources of eroded sediment are located in the Karakoram, in particular in the Hunza basin. Substantial sediment storage occurs on the relatively flat Tibetan Plateau and the Indus River valley reach between Partab Bridge and Shatial. The presented framework for sediment budget construction requires relatively few data, mostly derived from global datasets. It therefore can be utilized for other ungauged or poorly gauged drainage basins of the world. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Dirk de Boer for years of guidance, mentoring, and encouragement. Without his invaluable help, I could never have completed this dissertation. I am grateful to my committee members, Dr. Alec Aitken, Dr. Xulin Guo, Dr. Lawrence Martz, and Dr. Charles Maulè for their assistance and guidance and for devoting their valuable time to serve on my Ph.D. program. I also wish to express my gratitude to my fellow students and staff in the Department of Geography and Planning for their help in my research. Finally I am deeply grateful to my parents, my wife (Aisha) and kids (Hamza and Talha). Without their love, support and encouragement, none of my achievements would have been possible. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PERMISSION TO USE ................................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research Background ..................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Sediment Budgets ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 Techniques for Constructing Sediment Budgets ......................................................... 3 1.1.3 Need of Research in Sediment Budgets ...................................................................... 5 1.2 Study Area: The Upper Indus River Basin ..................................................................... 6 1.3 Research Objectives ........................................................................................................ 8 1.4 Research Methodology ................................................................................................... 9 1.5 Thesis Structure ............................................................................................................ 10 1.6 References ..................................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER 2 – SPATIAL PATTERNS AND VARIATION OF SUSPENDED SEDIMENT YIELD IN THE UPPER INDUS RIVER BASIN, NORTHERN PAKISTAN ........................... 22 2.1 Abstract ......................................................................................................................... 22 2.2 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 23 2.3 Study area...................................................................................................................... 26 2.3.1 The Upper Indus River: Physiography and River System ........................................ 26 2.3.2 Geology and Tectonics ............................................................................................. 28 2.3.3 Climate ...................................................................................................................... 30 2.3.4 Suspended Sediment Yield of the Indus River ......................................................... 32 2.3.5 Tarbela Reservoir Sedimentation .............................................................................. 33 2.4 Data Availability, Quality and Methods ....................................................................... 34 2.5 Results and Discussion ................................................................................................. 38 2.5.1 Hydrologic Regimes ................................................................................................. 38 2.5.1.1 Flood Generating Mechanisms ..................................................................................................