International Journal of Civil, Structural, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering Research and Development (IJCSEIERD) ISSN 2249-6866 Vol. 3, Issue 3, Aug 2013, 77-86 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd. MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE VAMSADHARA RIVER BASIN USING SPATIAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY E. AMMINEDU, K. HARIKRISHNA, CH. VASUDEVA RAO, G. JAISANKAR & V. VENKATESWARA RAO Department of Geo-Engineering, College of Engineering (A), Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India ABSTRACT Drainage characteristics playing a key role for watershed development and management plans for harnessing surface water and ground water resources. This study was undertaken to determine the drainage characteristics of Vamsadhara river basin (VRB). The study area with an qareal extent of 10,601.5 km2 is forms a part of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states. Spatial Information Technology (SIT) i.e. Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) has proved to be an efficient tool in delineation of drainage pattern. GIS and image processing techniques have been adopted for the identification of morphological features and analyzing their properties of the Vamsadhara river basin (VRB). The basin morphometric parameters such as linear and aerial aspects were determined and computed. The significance of the morphometric characteristics in various sub-basins and for the whole basin, have been highlighted. It is 8th order drainage basin and drainage pattern mainly in subdendritic to dendritic type. The streams of lower order mostly dominate the basin. It is observed that the drainage density value is high which indicates the basin is less permeable subsoil with sparse vegetative cover. The circularity ratio value reveals that the basin is strongly elongated and less permeable homogenous geologic materials. This study would help the local people to utilize the resources for sustainable development of the basin area. KEYWORDS: Vamsadhara River Basin, Morphometry, Water Resources Management, Spatial Information Technology INTRODUCTION India is traversed by large number of big and small river systems. Drainage basins or basins should be the study area for the better understanding of the hydrologic system. The optimal and sustainable development of the resource is prerequisite so that it is assessed rationally to avoid any future problems regarding its qualitative and quantitative availability. The rain in India is concentrated in a short period of about five monsoon months (June to October). On account of high precipitation as well as wide variation in its intensity and the areal distribution, several rivers swell up in high floods during this period. The coastal belt of India especially the area of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu get flooded in association with the pre- and post-monsoon cyclonic storms forming in the Bay of Bengal. This calls for proper management of water resources of the area, for which knowledge of the basin hydrology of the river, which drains through the area, is essential. Morphometric analysis (Agarwal et al., 2000) is an important aspect of hydrological and hydrogeological studies. The basin morphomatric characteristics of the various basins have been studied by many scientists using conventional (Horton, 1945; Smith, 1950; Strahler, 1957) and remote sensing and GIS methods (Krishnamurthy and Srinivas, 1995; Biswas et al., 1999; Narendra and Nageswara Rao, 2006). In this connection morphometric characteristics of the drainage basin of the area may provide some useful inputs in understanding the basin hydrology. So far, there has not been any work on these lines for the area under study and hence, the need for the present study. 78 E. Amminedu, K. Harikrishna, Ch. Vasudeva Rao, G. Jaisankar & V. Venkateswara Rao STUDY AREA Vamsadhara River Basin with an aerial extent of 10,601.5 Sq.kms. is taken up for the examination of the problem. The river is prone to frequent floods. This is an inter-state drainage basin between Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. The river joins the sea at Kalingapatnam after traversing 230kms. in both the states (Figure 1). The basin area forms a part of Survey of India topographic sheets Nos. 65M/5-16, 65N/9, 65N/13-15, and 74A/1-8 and B/1-3 and 74B/5. The basin area is located between 830 15′ and 840 57′ E longitude and 180 15′ and 190 57′ N latitude (figure 1). Figure 1: Location Map of Vamsadhar River Basin The basin is divided into 19 sub-basins based on the drainage network. Most part of the plains is covered by charnkites in the eastern and lower central parts. The hills along the northen parts and eastern parts composed by khondalites and granite gneisses. The soils of the study area consisting of clay mostly in central area and sands and silts in the remaining basin area. The annual rainfall of the study area varies from 980 in south to 1300mm towards north. This is due to the proximity of the northern parts of the study area to the Eastern Ghats. DATA BASE AND METHODOLOGY Drainage network and sub-basins are delineated from 28 survey of India topo sheets of 1:50,000 scale, using Arc GIS 9.3 and ERDAS IMAGINE 9.1 softwares formed the data base for the study. The digital data of AWiFS with 56 m spatial resolution was used to meet the requirement of area under study (Figure 4). The variables for the study of morphometric aspects were analysed using standard techniques followed by several pioneers in the field such as Horton(1945), Schumm(1956), Strahler (1964) etc. For the convenience of the study, the area was divided into smaller units viz., sub-basins. 19 sub-basins were demarcated and the analysis was carried out for each of them and for the whole of the basin. The order was given to each stream by following Strahler (1964) stream ordering technique. The attributes were assigned to create the digital data base for drainage layer of the river basin. The map showing drainage pattern in the study area was prepared after detailed ground check with GPS survey on channel network and water tanks. Various morphometric parameters such as linear aspects of the drainage network like stream order (Nu), bifurcation ratio (Rb), stream length (Lu) and areal/density aspects of the drainage basin like area(A), drainage density (Dd), stream frequency (Fs), texture ratio (T), elongation ratio (Re), circularity ratio (Rc) and form factor ratio (Rf) of the basin were computed. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Various morphometric parameters of VRB is calculated in ArcGIS-9.3 and is summarized in tables. Morphometric Analysis of the Vamsadhara River Basin Using Spatial Information Technology 79 The basin area is divided into 19 sub-basins (Figure 3) and 6 seventh order sub-basins out of 19 sub-basins. Linear Aspects The data obtained for the various parameters of linear aspects have been presented in Table No.1 and the same have been analyzed in the following sections. Stream Order (Nu) Drainage basin analyses begin by designation of stream orders. The channel segment of the drainage basin has been ranked according to Strahler stream ordering system using ArcGIS-9.3 The study area is a 8th order drainage basin. As a general rule, the number of stream segments decrease as the stream order increases for the river, as well as, for the sub- basins. The total number of stream segments of all orders was found to be 45,627. Of this, the first order stream segments are 35,341, which accounts for 77.45%, 7,920 are 2nd order which amounts th 17.36%, 1,814 are 3rd order which is 3.97%, 421 in 4 order which is 0.09% and 109,22 and 6 are Figure 2: Drainage Patterns of the Vamsadhara River Basin Figure 3: Sub Basins of Figure 4: AWiFS Satellite Imagery of Vamsadhara River Basin Vamsadhara River Basin 80 E. Amminedu, K. Harikrishna, Ch. Vasudeva Rao, G. Jaisankar & V. Venkateswara Rao 5th, 6th and 7th order streams respectively (Table 1 ). The percent of first order streams are found to be more respectively in sub-basins 7, 17, 12, 2 and 1. All these sub-basins flow through the hilly terrain for major part of their course. The percent of the first order streams to the total number of stream segments was found to be low in sub-basins 18 and 19 because these are lying in coastal plains. Table 1: Number of Streams and Lengths of Streams of 19 Sub Basins of VRB Sub No. of Streams Length of Streams (km) Basin N N N N N N N ∑N L L L L L L L ∑L No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 3916 841 197 43 11 2 1 5010 1124 466.9 221.5 119.5 75.4 20.4 17.5 2045 2 4040 904 202 45 12 4 1 5207 1127 452.7 178 85.9 44.7 38.2 16.9 1943 3 2888 598 130 34 8 1 - 3659 789.6 289.4 122.5 52.6 27.6 31.4 - 1313 4 877 167 43 9 1 - - 1097 213.4 88.9 34.5 18.5 3.1 358.4 5 878 201 45 11 2 1 1138 238.6 102.2 44.3 11.4 17.6 9.5 423.6 6 840 188 41 10 4 1 1084 205.9 83.7 38.3 15.2 7.6 11.7 362.4 7 7516 1692 380 86 22 4 1 9700 1942 874.6 345.9 159.2 75.7 38.6 52.7 3489 8 284 68 21 4 1 378 114.6 41.6 19.7 9 4.4 189.3 9 303 75 24 5 2 409 89.7 51.8 28.3 11.8 9.2 190.8 10 779 165 37 8 2 1 992 263.9 96.9 41 22.8 6.4 18.5 449.5 11 1543 323 69 19 6 2 1 1962 473 187.3 80.2 59.5 10.8 9.6 12.4 832.8 12 4314 1048 238 60 18 4 1 5682 1359 539.3 247.9 112 36.6 39.1 49.9 2384 13 457 118 32 9 2 618 144 61.5 34.1 18.3 7 264.9 14 949 205 51 11 1 1217 269 128.8 59.8 26.9 12.5 497 15 514 96 24 6 1 641 149.3 56.7 34.1 12.4 8.9 261.4 16 78 174 41 9 2 304 228 105.1 50.7 20.6 19.5 423.9 17 4408 908 200 44 11 2 1 5573 1244 501.5 210.3 105.5 53.9 15.5 25.6 2156 18 307 47 12 1 367 59.5 25.9 11.3 1.5 98.2 19 450 102 27 7 3 589 112.5 53 28.1 8.2 9.5 211.3 Total 35341 7920 1814 421 109 22 6 45627 10146.1 4207.8 1830.5 870.8 430.4 232.5 175 17893.1 Stream Length For the whole of the basin, the total stream length is17,893.1 km.