Prioritization of sub-watersheds based on morphometric analysis using geospatial technique in Piperiya watershed, India

Hydrological investigation and behavior of watershed depend upon geo-morphometric characteristics of catchment. Morphometric analysis is commonly used for development of regional hydrological model of ungauged watershed. A critical valuation and assessment of geo-morphometric constraints has been carried out. Prioritization of watersheds based on water plot capacity of Piperiya watershed has been evaluated by linear, aerial and relief aspects. Morphometric analysis has been attempted for prioritization for nine sub-watersheds of Piperiya watershed in Hasdeo river basin, which is a tributary of the Mahanadi. Sub-watersheds are delineated by ArcMap 9.3 software as per digital elevation model (DEM). Assessment of drainages and their relative parameters such as stream order, stream length, stream frequency, drainage density, texture ratio, form factor, circulatory ratio, elongation ratio, bifurcation ratio and compactness ratio has been calculated separately for each sub-watershed using the Remote Sensing (RS) and Geospatial techniques. Finally, the prioritized score on the basis of morphometric behavior of each sub-watershed is assigned and thereafter consolidated scores have been estimated to identify the most sensitive parameters. The analysis reveals that stream order varies from 1 to 5; however, the first-order stream covers maximum area of about 87.7 %. Total number of stream segment of all order is 1,264 in the watershed. The study emphasizes the prioritization of the sub-watersheds on the basis of morphometric analysis. The final score of entire nine sub-watersheds is assigned as per erosion threat. The sub-watershed with the least compound parameter value was assigned as highest priority. However, the sub-watersheds has been categorized into three classes as high (4.1–4.7), medium (4.8–5.3) and low (>5.4) priority on the basis of their maximum (6.0) and minimum (4.1) prioritized score.