APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING AND GIS FOR

MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF TUIKUAL WATERSHED,

SERCHHIP DISTRICT, MIZORAM.

PRESENTED BY

PARISHMA NATH
ROLL NO- 16/GEOL/029
REGISTRATION NO. 1600727

SUPERVISOR

ASSOCIATE PROF. Dr. K SRINIVASA RAO

DEPT OF GEOLOGY
 INTRODUCTION

According to Clarke (1966), morphometric is the

mathematical analyses of the configuration of basin surface thereby
determines the shapes and dimensions of the landform.
The Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer based
programmed for capturing, storing, checking, analyze and displaying
data related to geographical domain. The Remote sensing (RS) and
Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques are widely applied
for studying the morphometric aspects of the watershed.
 OBJECTIVES

1. Morphometric analysis of the watershed.

2. Preparation of Land Use Land Cover Map (LULC) of the study area.
3. Preparation of Slope Map and Aspect Map.
 Materials and Method

1. For the present study area, Survey of India (SOI) toposheet Nos.84A/14
and 84A/15 on 1:50,000 scale has been used for delineating the watershed
boundary.
2. Cartosat Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data of 30meter spatial resolution
for generating various stream features, preparation of thematic layers such as
aspect map, slope map and relief map.
3. IRS LISS III Multispectral Satellite imagery (February, 2016) downloaded
from Bhuban portal is used for preparing land use and land cover (LULC) map.

The drainage network of the basin was analyzed as per Horton’s

(1945) laws and the stream ordering was made after Strahler (1964). In case
of morphometric analysis, I have taken in four aspects i.e. linear aspects,
textural aspect, geometric aspect and relief aspect.
 STUDY AREA
The study area is a
tributary of River Tuichang which
originates from north and flowing
toward southern part of the
state. It covers an area of 80.03
sq. km having perimeter of 47.40
Km which is extended in the
district of Serchhip, Mizoram. The
total length of all streams in the
basin is 377.31 km and the
highest elevation of the entire
watershed is 1889 m. The study
area fall within the latitude 92⁰
53′ 0″ E to 93⁰ 0′ 0″ E and
longitude 23⁰ 30′ 30″ N to 23⁰ 23′
0″ N.
 Drainage Map

The study area is a

sixth order drainage basin
having 453 numbers of first
order stream, 102 numbers
of second order stream, 25
numbers of third order
stream, 6 numbers of fourth
order stream, 2 numbers of
fifth and only one sixth
order stream.
Analysis of Morphometric Parameters:

A. Linear Parameters
B. Textural Parameters
C. Geometric Parameters and
D. Relief Parameters
Linear Parameters:
For the morphometric analysis of study area, the linear
aspects such as stream number, Stream order (Nu), Stream length
(Lu), Mean stream length (Lsm), Stream length ratio (RL) Bifurcation
ratio (Rb), and rho coefficient were determined.

Linear Aspects

1 Stream Order (U) Heirarchial rank Strahler (1964)

2 Stream Length (Lu) Length of the stream Horton (1945)

3 Stream Length Ratio (Rl) Rl = Lu/Lu-1; Lu= Length of Horton (1945)

Streams in a given order

4 Bifurcation Ratio (Rb) Rb = Nu/Nu + 1; Nu = Number of Schumm (1956)

Streams in a given order

5 Mean Bifurcation Ratio (Rbm) Rbm = Average Rb ratios of all orders Strahler (1957,1964)

6 Rho co-efficient (ρ) ρ = Rl/Rb Hortn (1945)

Table: The numbers of stream order and total numbers of stream the Tuikual sub basin are given
in the following tables:

Sub Watersheds No of Streams in each order (Su) Total No. of

1st order 2nd order 3rd order 4th order 5th order 6thorder Streams (Nu)

A 102 24 5 1 0 0 132
B 21 5 2 1 0 0 29
C 51 9 4 1 0 0 65
D 18 4 2 1 0 0 25
E 11 4 2 1 0 0 18
F 36 10 3 1 1 0 51
Entire watershed 453 102 25 6 2 1 589
Table: The streams lengths and Mean Stream Length of the Tuikual sub basin are
given in the following table:

Sub Watersheds Stream lengths of each order streams in km. Total Mean
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th length in stream
km (Lu) length (Lsm)
km

A 60.194 12.247 6.827 4.265 0 0 83.533 0.632

B 12.622 3.605 1.584 0.843 0 0 18.654 0.643
C 26.022 7.200 2.149 2.713 0 0 38.084 0.585
D 11.384 3.145 2.042 0.410 0 0 16.981 0.679
E 5.332 1.453 1.133 1.974 0 0 9.892 0.549
F 22.235 7.251 0.790 2.093 9.255 0 41.621 0.816
Entire watershed 263.035 62.362 22.907 11.523 16.192 1.592 377.611 0.641
 Table: The stream length ratio of Tuikual sub basin is given by the
following tables:

Stream length ratio (Rl)

Sub water 2nd/1st 3rd/2nd 4th/3rd 5th/4th 6th/5th Mean (Rl)

shed
Rl = (Lu/Lu-1)

A 0.235 0.208 0.2 - - 0.443

B 0.238 0.4 0.5 - - 0.379

C 0.176 0.44 0.25 - - 0.288

D 0.222 0.50 0.5 - - 0.407

E 0.363 0.50 0.5 - - 0.454

F 0.278 0.30 0.333 1 - 0.477

Whole 0.225 0.245 0.24 0.333 0.260

watershed
Table: Morphometric parameters of Bifurcation ratio and rho co-
efficient of Entire Basin

Sub Watershed Bifurcation Ratio(Nu/Nu+1) Mean Bifurcation Rho Coefficient ρ =

Ratio Rl/Rb
1st/2nd 2nd/ 3rd 2nd/3rd 4th/5th 5th/6th

A 4.25 4.8 5 0 0 4.683 0.094

B 4.2 2.5 2 0 0 2.9 0.130

C 5.66 2.25 4 0 0 3.97 0.072

D 4.5 2 2 0 0 2.833 0.143

E 2.75 2 2 0 0 2.25 0.201

F 3.6 3.33 3 1 0 2.732 0.174

Entire Watershed 4.441 4.08 4.16 3 2 3.536 0.072

 Textural Parameters:

The textural parameters includes drainage density, stream

frequency, drainage texture, and constant of channel maintenance.
Drainage Density (Dd) Dd = Lu/A; Lu = Length of streams; A = Area of the Horton (1932, 1945)
basin

Stream Frequency (Fs) S = Nu/A; Nu = Number of streams in a given basin Horton (1932, 1945)

Drainage Texture (Rt) T= Nu/ P, Nu=total no of stream Horton (1945)

P= perimeter of the basin

Constant of Channel Maintenance Cm = 1/Dd Schumm (1956)

(Cm)
There is also a strong positive correlation between Drainage
Density and Stream Frequency as shown in the following figure-
Table: Textural Aspects of the study area and Its Sub-Watershed.

Sub Watersheds Drainage Density Stream Frequency Drainage Texture Constant of channel
(Km/Km2) (Stream No./ Km2) (Km-1) maintenance

A 5.260 8.313 6.64 0.910

B 6.800 10.572 3.37 0.147

C 4.273 7.294 4.72 0.234

D 4.279 6.300 2.97 0.233

E 4.774 8.687 2.73 0.209

F 5.905 7.236 4.12 0.169

Entire watershed 4.710 7.359 12.42 0.021

Geometric aspects:
The geometric aspects include form factor, circularity ratio,
elongation ratio.

Circularity Ratio (Rc) Rc = 4Πa/P2; P = Basin perimeter Miller (1953)

Elongation Ratio (Re) Re = (dc/lb) = (2/lb)√A/π; A = Area of Schumm (1954)

the basin

Form Factor (Ff) Ff = A/Lb2; Lb = Basin length Horton (1932)

Table: Estimated Geometric Parameters of the Tuichang
Watershed and Sub Watersheds

Sub-watersheds→ A B C D E F Entire
/ Parameters↓ Watershed

Form Factor 0.345 0.265 0.284 0.473 0.328 0.324 0.393

Circularity Ratio 0.514 0.466 0.591 0.703 0.602 0.582 0.447

Elongation Ratio 0.649 0.580 0.602 0.776 0.646 0.643 0.707

Basin Area (A)Km2 15.878 2.743 8.911 3.968 2.072 7.064 80.033

Basin Perimeter (P) Km 19.696 8.594 13.75 8.414 6.572 12.350 47.409

Basin Length (Lb) Km 6.780 3.216 5.592 2.895 2.513 4.665 14.266
Relief parameter:
The relief parameters are basin relief, relief ratio,
dissection index, ruggedness number, gradient ratio and relative
relief.

Basin Relief (R) R =H-h; H = Basin highest relief; Schumm (1956)

h = Basin lowest relief

Relief Ratio (Rr) Rr = R/Lb; Lb = Basin Length Schumm (1963)

Dissection Index (Di) Di = R/Ra; Ra = Basin absolute relief Singh&Dubey (1994)

Ruggedness Number(Rn) Rn = R×Dd; Dd = Drainage density Schumm (1956)

Gradient Ratio (Gr) Gr = (a-b)/Ls; Ls = Length of the main Sreedevi,et al.,(2005)

channel

Relative Relief Rhp = (R*100)/P; R =Basin Relief P = Basin Melton (1957)

Perimeter
Figure: Relief and Gradient aspects of the Tuikual watershed

Sub watersheds Elevation in meter Elevation in meter Fall in Absolute

Max (H) Min (h) Source (a) Confluence (b) height (a-b) relief
km (H+h)/2
(km)
A 1889 791 1565 791 0.774 1.340
B 1591 808 1487 808 0.679 1.199
C 1587 679 1545 679 0.886 1.133
D 1564 702 1397 702 0.695 1.133
E 1561 725 1561 725 0.836 1.143
F 1417 679 1395 679 0.716 1.043
Entire 1889 612 1565 612 0.953 1.250
watershed
Table: Calculated Relief parameters of the Tuikual watershed
and its sub watersheds.

Sub watersheds Basin relief Relief ratio Relative relief Dissection Ruggedness Gradient
(km) index number ratio

A 1.098 0.161 5.574 0.819 5.775 0.057

B 0.783 0.243 9.111 0.655 5.324 0.050

C 0.908 0.162 6.603 0.801 3.879 0.065

D 0.862 0.297 10.244 0.760 3.688 0.051

E 0.836 0.332 12.38 0.731 3.991 0.061

F 0.738 0.158 5.975 0.705 4.357 0.067

Entire watershed 1.277 0.089 2.693 1.021 6.014 0.070

 THEMATIC MAP

A thematic map is type of map specially designed to

show a particular theme connected with a specific geographic
area. In the present study area we have generated four types of
thematic maps-
1. Aspect map
2. Slope map.
3. Land use Land Cover Map
4. Digital Elevation Model Map.
 Aspect map:
The aspect indicates
the maximum slope
direction of a terrain to
which its faces. From the
Aspect map, it can be seen
that east facing slopes
mainly occur in the southern
part of Mizoram and west
facing slopes are mainly
occur in eastern part of the
basin.
Slope Map: In the study
area, the slope values vary
from 0 to 600. The slope
values have been
categorized in to four groups
namely

00-130 - very low angle slope,

130-220 - low angle slope,
220-320 - moderate angle slope,
320-600 – high angle slope.
Land Use/Land Cover Map:
Land cover is the physical material at
the surface of the earth. Land covers
include grass, asphalt, trees, bare
ground, water, etc.
From the present study area, it is found
that thick forest covers an area of
about 26.65 sq. km, 23.54 sq. km area
are covered by Sparse Vegetation.
Barren Land has covered a very small
area about 1.31 sq km, Settlement or
any infrastructure has covers an area of
about 8.70 sq km and Jhum Land or
Cultivation land has occupied by an area
of about 7.31 sq. km in the study area.
Digital Elevation Model Map:
A Digital Elevation
Model (DEM) is a specialized
database that represents the
relief of a surface between
points of known elevation.
 CONCLUSION
• The number of streams in the study area is more (589) which indicates
that the bed rock is less permeable.
• The value of Rho Coefficient is 0.072 which suggests higher hydrologic
storage during floods and attenuation of effects of erosion during elevated
discharge of the study area.
• The high values of Stream Frequency (7.359) indicate resistant subsurface
strata, sparse vegetation and high relief with low permeability of rock
formation of the area.
• The values of Constant of Channel Maintenance (0.021) indicating that the
area is characterized by high surface runoff, low permeability and high
drainage density.
• The form factor values (0.39) of Study Area suggest that the study area is
less elongated in shape.
• In the study area the values of Circularity Ratio (0.447) and Elongation
ration (0.707) indicate the basin is less elongated in shape.
• Basin Relief of the study area is ranges from 0.738 to 1.098 km
which indicates that the area is having high runoff and low
infiltration rate.
• The value of the Relief Ratio (0.089) of the study area indicate that
the basin is having high relief and steep slopes topography
• The relative relief (2.693) of the study area indicates the land
surface has moderates to steep slopes.
• The values of Dissection Index (1.021) of the Study Area suggest
that the landforms of the study area are highly dissected
mountainous terrain.
• The Ruggedness value of the Study Area is 6.014 which suggest
that the erosion rate is moderate.
• The value of Gradient Ratio (0.070) indicates the moderates to high
gradient of the terrain which reflects in slope map.
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