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E-International Scientific Research Journal
ISSN: 2094-1749 Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 2011
Although in this technology era we are using various digital techniques with the help of
indigenous software for morphometric analysis but the morphometric studies on river basins
were first introduction by Horton, 1932 and the idea was later developed in detail by Miller
1953, Schumm 1956, Melton 1958, Smith 1958, Morisawa 1962, Strahler 1964. In order to that
a number of other studies have been carried out as a traditional morphometric analysis without
any scientific application of the morphometric results (Khan, 1998, Nag, 1998; Biswas et al.,
1999; Shrimali et al., 2000; Srinivasa et al., 2004; Chopra et al., 2005 and Nookaratnam et al.,
2005). Whereas the present morphometric analysis advocating a scientific application of the
results for natural hazard vulnerability assessment which is a major environmental problem of
the Himlaya because natural hazards in the region cause great loss to life and property and poses
serious threat to the process of development with have far-reaching economic and social
consequences. In view of this the proposed work will fill up this highly realized gap and thus will
have great scientific relevance in the field of natural hazard and risk management in Himalaya
and other mountainous parts of the world.
Methodology
The study comprises mainly two components, (a) lab/desk study and (b) field investigations.
Geo-structural maps were prepared during field study and details were verified and modified
with other maps prepared during the lab/desk study. The procedure adopted for morphometric
analysis and GIS mapping has been outlined in Fig. 2 and describing as below:
GIS Mapping
The necessary base maps for morphometric analysis carried out through GIS Mapping using
Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-1C) LISS III and PAN merged data of 2010 and SOI
Topographical Sheets (56 O/7NE and 56 O/7NW) of the area at scale 1:25000 (Fig. 2). These
required GIS maps are location map, drainage map, drainage order map, lineament map,
structural map, geological map etc. The satellite images of the study area were registered
geometrically using SOI Topographical Sheets (56 O/7NE and 56 O/7NW) of the area at scale
1:25000. For carrying out this important exercise uniformly distributed common Ground Control
Points (GCPs) were selected and marked with root mean square (rms) error of one pixel and the
images used were resampled by cubic convolution method. Both the data sets were then coregistered
for further analysis initially, the LISS and PAN data were co-registered with root
mean square (rms) error of 0.3 pixel and the output FCC was transformed into Intensity, Hue and
Saturation (IHS) colour space images. The reverse transformation from IHS to RBG was
performed substituting the original high-resolution image for the intensity component, along with
the hue and saturation components from the original RBG images. This merge data product
obtained through the fusion of IRS –1C LISS – III and PAN was used for the generation of GIS
mapping through digital image processing techniques supported by intensive ground truth
surveys were used for the interpretation of the remote sensing data. In order to enhance the
interpretability of the remote sensing data for digital analysis several image enhancement
techniques, such as, PCA, NDVI etc. were employed (Fig. 2).
Morphometric Analysis: The morphometric parameters are calculated based on the formula
suggested by (Horton, 1945), (Strahler, 1964), (Schumm, 1956), (Nookaratnam et al., 2005) and
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