Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF TURINJIHALLIAR WATERSHED, TAMILNADU, INDIA, USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS TECHNIQUES

P. Srinivasan, G. Vennila, S. Ramesh and G. Vijayakumar

Abstract

Subsurface water augmentation can be achieved through watershed development and its effective management for that quantifying the available surface water potential has to study as preliminarily, so that the quantitative analyses of drainage system was an important aspect of characterisation of watersheds to augment the study area ground water table. For that drainage characterization study it might be the best initiation that is the morphometric analysis of the study area watershed. One who is using watershed as a basic unit in morphometric analysis it would be the most logical choice, because all noticeable changes in hydrologic and geomorphic processes occur within the watershed. An attempt has been made to study the detailed morphometric characteristics of Turinjihalliar watershed in Vaniyar river basin, which is part of the Cauvery basin in Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu. For detailed study, we used RASTER data for preparing Digital Elevation Model and Geographical Information System was used in evaluation of linear, areal and relief aspects of morphometric analysis. Flow accumulation, Watershed boundary, flow direction, stream ordering, flow length, have been prepared using ArcHydro Tool using Surface Tool in ArcGIS-10 software, and ASTER (DEM). Authors have computed more than 10 morphometric parameters. As per all morphometric parameters analysis that the total length of the study area watershed is roughly calculated by studying the linear aspect, like wise the study area watershed covered area and gradient of the study area watershed from source point to mouth of the river. One and two dimensional flow model can be studied the relief aspect is also be analysed for the erosional development in the area by the streams may progress well beyond maturity. Lithology has had an influence in the drainage development and the studies were very useful for planning rain water harvesting and watershed management of the study area. In this paper total drainage length, area & gradient are arrived.