ABSTRACT
302Morphometric analysis is important in many hydrological investigations and is inevitable in development and management of drainage basin. The present study depicts the process to evaluate the various morphometric parameters of Miniwada watershed in Nagpur district, Maharashtra, India through measurement of linear, aerial and relief aspects of watershed using Geographic Information System (GIS). The drainage network of watershed was delineated using ESRI Software ArcGIS 10.2. The drainage pattern is dendritic and the analysis reveals that the stream order varies from 1 to 4. The total number of stream segments of all orders counted as 37, out of which the maximum area (70.27%) is covered by 1st order streams and the minimum (2.70%) by 4th order. The bifurcation ratio reflecting geological and tectonic characteristics of the watershed were estimated at 3.08 and it indicates that the watershed has suffered less structural disturbance and the drainage pattern has not been distorted by its structural disturbance. The drainage density of watershed 3.63 km/sq km indicates the closeness of spacing of channels, thus providing a quantitative measure of the average length of stream channel for the whole watershed. The systematic analysis of various parameters in GIS helps to understand the soil resources distribution, watershed prioritization, planning and management at watershed level. Hence, it is concluded that GIS techniques proved to be competent tools in the morphometric analysis as these tools not only upgrade and monitor parameters, but also permit the analysis of drainage information in association with other resources and environmental parameters.
