Morphometry Analysis of Berok Catchment Area by Using Geographical Information Analysis (GIS)

Water is a limited natural resources with variety of usage and an increase in human population is a major area of concern. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to study the detail morphometric characteristics of Berok river. For detail study, geographical information system (GIS) was used in evaluation of linear, areal and relief aspects of morphometric parameters. A study on the river basin was carried out by employing topographic map and field observation techniques. Berok river has been found basin length with 104 km. The total stream length of all stream segments under stream order 1 to 7 are found to be 2612.58, 751.82, 362.48, 290.78, 115.33, 69.62, and 15.22 km respectively. The total length of all streams for the entire water catchment has thus been found to be 4217.84 km. The mean bifurcation ratio is found to be 4.33 which fall under normal basin category. The study focused on selected morphometrical aspects of the river basins namely drainage pattern, stream order, and drainage density. Result of the study showed the river basin has drainage density of 3.82km/km2. The stream of the study area has a dendritic drainage pattern mostly and has 7 stream orders. It is observed that the drainage density value is high which indicates the basin is less permeable subsoil, sparse vegetation cover and more surface runoff. The value of stream frequency of 6.78, texture ratio of 23.64, circulatory ratio of 0.24 and elongation ratio of 0.36 has been found in Berok river. The circulatory and elongation ratio value reveals that the basin is strongly elongated and highly permeable homogenous geologic materials. GIS could ho Pff_,ectively used for the computation of these morphologIcal characteristics of the catchment area with greater efficiency and accuracy. The study will help the local people to utilize the resources for sustainable development of the basin area.
Key words: Morphometry, Berok river basin, Geographical Informational System (GIS), drainage pattern, stream order