16
Remote Sensing and GIS-Based
Morphometric Analysis of Spiti
River Basin
Arif Husain and Pankaj Kumar
Abstract
Spiti river basin is located in the north-eastern
part of Himachal Pradesh, India. The
Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission
and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), 2011
has been used in the present study. Three
different basins have been delineated by using
hydrological tool given in the ArcGIS 10.1.
They are named as Spiti, Tsarap Chu and
Parechu basins with an area of 5419, 781 and
651 sq. km, respectively. The morphometric
parameters of all the three sub-basins have
been calculated. ArcGIS 10.1 software was
used for delineation and computation of
drainage parameters and also for generating
map layout. All the morphometric parameters
of Spiti river basin provide an important
information about drainage density, stream
frequency, soil texture, slope aspect, drainage
pattern, type of relief, stream order and the
total number of streams. Morphometric analysis of the study area of all the three
sub-basins represents sub-dendritic to dendritic drainage pattern with moderate to very
fine drainage texture. The bifurcation ratio of
all three basins indicates normal basin category and presence of low drainage density
suggesting that the region has highly permeable sub-soil.
Keywords
Morphometry Á Digital elevation model Á Spiti
river basin Á Remote sensing and GIS
16.1 Introduction
Morphometry is the measurement and mathematical analysis of the configuration of the earth
surface, shape and dimensions of its landforms
(Clark 1966). The morphometric analysis of a
river basin and drainage network plays a significant role in understanding the hydrogeological
behavior of the basin and expresses the prevailing climate, geology, geomorphology and structure. The relationship between various drainage
parameters and the above factors is now almost
well established (Horton 1945). Morphometric
analysis using remote sensing technique has
emerged as a powerful tool in recent years.
Remote sensing has the ability to obtain the
synoptic view of the large area at one time and is
very useful in analyzing the drainage morphometry (Rudraiah et al. 2008). So far, no
detailed work on the morphometry of the Spiti
valley has been done. The study area covers an
area of 7,589 sq. km and comprises three river
A. Husain Á P. Kumar (&)
Department of Geography, Delhi School of
Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
e-mail: pankajdsedu@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
B. W. Pandey and S. Anand (eds.), Water Science and Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57488-8_16
213
Remote Sensing and GIS-Based
Morphometric Analysis of Spiti
River Basin
Arif Husain and Pankaj Kumar
Abstract
Spiti river basin is located in the north-eastern
part of Himachal Pradesh, India. The
Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission
and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), 2011
has been used in the present study. Three
different basins have been delineated by using
hydrological tool given in the ArcGIS 10.1.
They are named as Spiti, Tsarap Chu and
Parechu basins with an area of 5419, 781 and
651 sq. km, respectively. The morphometric
parameters of all the three sub-basins have
been calculated. ArcGIS 10.1 software was
used for delineation and computation of
drainage parameters and also for generating
map layout. All the morphometric parameters
of Spiti river basin provide an important
information about drainage density, stream
frequency, soil texture, slope aspect, drainage
pattern, type of relief, stream order and the
total number of streams. Morphometric analysis of the study area of all the three
sub-basins represents sub-dendritic to dendritic drainage pattern with moderate to very
fine drainage texture. The bifurcation ratio of
all three basins indicates normal basin category and presence of low drainage density
suggesting that the region has highly permeable sub-soil.
Keywords
Morphometry Á Digital elevation model Á Spiti
river basin Á Remote sensing and GIS
16.1 Introduction
Morphometry is the measurement and mathematical analysis of the configuration of the earth
surface, shape and dimensions of its landforms
(Clark 1966). The morphometric analysis of a
river basin and drainage network plays a significant role in understanding the hydrogeological
behavior of the basin and expresses the prevailing climate, geology, geomorphology and structure. The relationship between various drainage
parameters and the above factors is now almost
well established (Horton 1945). Morphometric
analysis using remote sensing technique has
emerged as a powerful tool in recent years.
Remote sensing has the ability to obtain the
synoptic view of the large area at one time and is
very useful in analyzing the drainage morphometry (Rudraiah et al. 2008). So far, no
detailed work on the morphometry of the Spiti
valley has been done. The study area covers an
area of 7,589 sq. km and comprises three river
A. Husain Á P. Kumar (&)
Department of Geography, Delhi School of
Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
e-mail: pankajdsedu@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
B. W. Pandey and S. Anand (eds.), Water Science and Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57488-8_16
213