Determination of erosion surfaces and stages of evolution ... · Determination of erosion surfaces...

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMATICS AND GEOSCIENCES

Volume 3, No 1, 2012

© Copyright by the authors - Licensee IPA- Under Creative Commons license 3.0

Research article ISSN 0976 – 4380

Submitted on May 2012 published on July 2012 63

Determination of erosion surfaces and stages of evolution of Sangra

drainage basin in Giridih district, Jharkhand, India Shyamal Dutta

1©, Suvendu Roy

2

1- Assistant Teacher, Gadadharpur Bazar Junior High School, Birbhum-731234 (W.B.) India

2- Post-Graduate Student (2010-12), Dept. of Geography, The University of Burdwan,

Burdwan-713104(W.B.) India

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

A major emphasis in geomorphology over the past several decades has been on the

development of quantitative physiographic methods to describe the evolution and behavior of

surface drainage networks. The quantitative analysis of morphometric parameters is found to

be of immense utility in river basin evaluation. The influence of drainage morphometry is

very significant in understanding the landform processes, soil physical properties and

erosional characteristics. Drainage characteristics of many river basins and sub-basins in

different parts of the globe have been studied using conventional methods. Modern statistical

analysis and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques are now-a-day used for

assessing various terrain and morphometric parameters of the drainage basins as they provide

a flexible environment and a powerful tool for the manipulation and analysis of spatial

information. In the present study, stream number, order, frequency, density and bifurcation

ratio are derived and tabulated on the basis of areal and linear properties of drainage channels

using GIS based on drainage lines of Sangra Drainage Basin of Giridih, Jharkhand as

represented over the topographical map (R.F. 1:50,000). Area-altitudinal relationship also be

assessed in this work to identify the erosional surfaces as well as stage of evolution. Besides,

this paper is an attempt to analyze and establish relationship between the depended and

independent variables through Principal component analysis to identify the major

morphometric parameters which has a significant role in the erosional landforms of this

drainage basin.

Keywords: Surface drainage networks, GIS, Areal and linear properties, Area-altitudinal

relationship, Erosional surface, Stages of evolution, PCA.

1. Introduction

The major methodological shift in Geomorphology after Second World War was

characterized by the appearance of quantitative geomorphology as a consequence of

application of statistical and mathematical methods to the study of landform and process. In

the Functional Theory of geomorphological discipline, analysis of the interrelationship

between forms (landforms) of medium to small spatial scale involving rapid temporal

changes and geomorphic processes and other landform controlling factors became the focal

theme. But the required information of rapid temporal change to validate functional

relationships was not forthcoming. Thus the functional theory has depended on the

competence of statistical and mathematical methods (Singh, 2002).

From this point of view, we are try to determine the erosional landforms and try to evaluate

the stages of erosion of Sangra Drainage Basin. To analyze this work, functional theory has

been used with the application of quantitative approaches of geomorphology. Erosional

Determination of erosion surfaces and stages of evolution of Sangra drainage basin in Giridih district,

Jharkhand, India

Shyamal Dutta, Suvendu Roy

International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences

Volume 3 Issue 1, 2012 64

landforms have been demarcated as ‘erosional surfaces’ which are the combined result of

erosional and depositional processes. But as for the more activeness and primary attract of

erosional processes on different endogenic landforms this combined result of landform

named as Erosional Landforms or Erosional Surface. It is almost the plain topographic

surfaces having undulated ground surface and remnant of low relief cause by dynamic wheels

of denudational processes and cutting across geological formations and structures are

generally called erosion or planation surface (Singh, 2002).

2. Objectives of the study

Though, there are innumerable techniques of morphometric and hydrological analysis in this

study, only most widely use techniques are discussed because these are the fundamental

factors of any type of basin morphometry. These are A. Stream Hierarchy (Stream ordering

and Bifurcation ratio and Length ratio), B. Areal features (Form Factor, Shape Factor,

Circularity ratio, elongation ratio) and C. Relief and Slope factors( Relative Relief, Average

Slope, Dissection Index, Ruggedness index, Drainage Density, Source and Confluence

Points). To test all of the variables, a micro-level basin (39.03 km²) have been chosen

because these morphometric analysis are closely associated with the dynamism of small

drainage basin.

To assess the geomorphological significance, the main objectives are as follows:

1. Identification of physical features and climatic condition of this basin and adjoining

areas.

2. Quantification of linear, areal and relief aspects of fluvial morphometry.

3. Assessment of area-altitude relationship to identify the erosion surfaces and stages of

evolution.

4. Establishing different empirical relations among the different morphometric

parameters through PCA analysis and testing these empirical relations.

5. Identifying the dominant morphometric factors in the development as well as

evolution of Basin features.

3. Methods & techniques

This work involves three principal processes- observation, recording or collection and

interpretation or analysis. In the first stage, base map is prepared based on Topographical

Sheet Number 72 L/4 published by Survey of India with scale 1: 50,000 published in 2004. In

this stage, Basin has been demarcated with the help of MapInfo-7.0 software. Basin area and

length of the basin have been recorded. Then to understand the stream hierarchy of linear

network, method proposed by A.N.Strahler (1952) of Stream Ordering have been followed,

then bifurcation ratio, length also be calculated.

Then to identify the relief and slope feature, the entire of Basin area has been divided into 67

one square km grid. Then maximum and minimum values of elevation, number of contour

crossing and frequency and the total length of the streams in each grid have been recorded.

Different indices have been used to represent the linear, areal, relief and slope features in this

drainage basin. These are as follows:


Jharkhand, India




Table 1: Adopted Morphometric Techniques

Aspects Morphometric Index Method proposed by

Stream Ordering Linear

Features Bifurcation Ratio A.N. Strahler(1952)

Form Factor (Rf) R.E. Horton(1932)

Shape (S) Corps of Engineers,W.S

Circularity Ratio(Rc) A. Miller (1953) Areal Features

Elongation Ratio (Re) S. Schumm (1956)

Relative Relief G.H. Smith (1938)

Average Slope C.K. Wenthworth (1930)

Dissection Index Dov Nir (1957)

Ruggedness Index R.J. Chorley

Relief Features

Drainage Density R.E. Horton (1945)

Use of Microsoft Excel-2003-2007 and SPSS-14.0 software to quantify the data; have

reduced the time of large and complex calculations and data analysis. MapInfo-7.0 software

has helped in the preparation of different thematic maps.

The entire study is based on secondary information and the data recorded from the

Topographical Sheet No.72 L/4 (1:50, 000) published by Survey of India in 2004. For this

purpose, to collect the basic information about the Giridih District, Jharkhand official website

of this district has been retrieved. Various journals and literature have also been studied in

this purpose for basic understanding.

3.1 Location of the study area

The Sangra Drainage Basin is a 5th

order river basin (NE-SW orientation and areal coverage

is 39.03 Sq.Km.) which is a tributary of Barakar River flowing along the right bank of

Barakar River. The entire Basin is placed in the Lower Hazaribag Plateau comprising three

blocks, namely Giridih in north, Birni in west and Bagodar in south of Giridih District in the

northern Chotanagpur region. Longitudinal extension of this Basin ranges from 86º 06' E to

86º 12' E and latitudinal extension ranges from 24º 04' N to 24º 07' 30'' N. Barakar River

traverses the basin from north-west to south-east direction. District headquarter Giridih is 10

k.m. away from this basin region, through, the metalled road passes along the south-east

boundary of the Sangra Drainage Basin.

4. Results and discussions

4.1 Physical settings of the study area

1. The region has some distinctive as well as exclusive physical features and climatic

conditions with respect to Lower Hazaribagh Plateau and Barakar Basin. Among them

important features are as follows:

2. The Basin belongs to ancient Archaean formation (Granite and Gneiss) with some

patches of Dharwar rocks consist of Mica Schist and Phylite.

3. Tropical wet dry type of climate with mean monthly temperature is ranging between

29º C to 32º C and annual rainfall (1901-50) ranges from 100 to above 150cm.

4. 58.06% of total area of this Sangra Drainage Basin is covered under dry deciduous

forest, mainly peninsular Sal, Mahua, Palas, Asan and Scrubs etc.


Jharkhand, India




5. Red or blackish Loamy soil and Laterite soil of the Gneiss and Granite surface.

6. Sangra Drainage Basin area mainly belongs to Moderate to Selva morphogenetic

region (Peltier, 1950).

7. Most important processes: Severe physical weathering (mainly Exfoliation), fluvial

erosion, gully erosion, regional metamorphism of plutonic igneous rocks, e.g., Granite

etc.

Figure 1: Location of the Study Area

4.2 Stream hierarchy (linear variables)

The first step in morphometric analysis is stream ordering following the system introduced by

A.N.Strahler (1952). There are five order of linear stream channel can be identified in this

basin. These are arranged by ordering and the following facts came into light.


Jharkhand, India




Table 2: Stream hierarchy and associated features of Sangra Drainage Basin (A.N. Strahler)

Orde

r (u)

No. of

Segments(N

Bifurcati

on

Total

Length(K

Mean

Length

Cumulative

Mean

Length

Ratio 1st 127 68.75 0.55 0.55

2nd 26 4.88 27.5 1.1 1.65 3

3rd 6 4.33 10.44 1.74 3.39 2.05

4th 2 3 9.46 4.73 8.12 204

5th 1 2 1.31 1.31 9.43 1.16

Mean 3.55 2.15

Figure: 2 Stream Ordering of Sangra Drainage Basin (Source: SOI Topographical Map 72

L/A and Prepared by authors)

Figure: 3 (a) & (b) Relationship between Stream Order and Number of Segments and

Length of the Stream


Jharkhand, India




4.3 Areal variables

Areal properties express the overall plan form and dimensions of drainage basin

(Summerfield; 1991). The ideal drainage basin is usually of pear shape but it is dependent on

the size and the length of the master stream of the basin and basin perimeter which are

dependent of relief, slope, geology and lithological characteristics of the basin.

Table 3: Areal variables of Sangra Drainage Basin

Shape Factor Formul

a Source

Calculate

d Value Remarks

Form (R f) A/L2

R.E. Horton(1932) 0.31 Narrow

elongated

Shape (S) L2/A

Corps of Engineers,

W.S 3.22

Narrow

elongated

Circularity Ratio(R c) A/Ac A. Miller (1953) 0.52 Elongated

Elongation Ratio (R e) d/Lb S. Schumm (1956) 0.63 Elongated

The Areal Variables such as form factor, shape factor, elongation ratio and circularity ratio of

Sangra Drainage Basin clearly revealed that the entire basin is elongated in character.

4.4 Determination of geomorphic stage of drainage basin

Identification of geomorphic stages and erosional surfaces in any drainage basin has been

more suitably done by the analysis of area-altitude relationship in general and hypsometric

analysis in particular. By assessing different elevation zones along with corresponding areal

coverage, this hypsometric curve is expressive of youthful, mature and senile topography.

Figure 4: Longitudinal profile of Sangra drainage basin (Source: Toposheet 72 L/4)

It is already seen from the longitudinal profile of Sangra Drainage Basin (Fig. No. 4) that

there are two kick points which indicates two different base level along with two different

stages of development. In this context hypsometric analysis may be the useful procedure to

identify the erosional stage of this drainage basin. Area-altitude relationship (Fig. No.5-b)

clearly depicts the fact that major areal coverage i.e., 79% of this basin has the elevation of


Jharkhand, India




250 to 350 metres. Whereas hypsometric integral (HI) value 0.28 (Fig. No.5-a) shows that the

whole basin belongs to mature to senile topography.

AREA-ALTITUDE RELATIONSHIP

2%

43%

36%

14%

4%

0%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

240-250 250-300 300-350 350-400 400-450 450-498

ALTITUDE IN METRES

PERCENTAGES OF AREA

(a) (b)

Figure 5: (a) & (b) Hypsometric curve & area-altitude relationship of Sangra drainage basin

(Source: Prepared by authors from SOI topographical map 72 L /4)

Figure 6: Absolute altitude map of Sangra drainage basin

4.5 Multivariate analysis of different morphometric variables

In this part of analysis major objective is to determinate the major factors of principal

morphometric as well as hydrologic variables which are responsible for such type of

development of this drainage basin. Since the morphometric and hydrologic variables do not

work in isolation but as closely associated phenomena, a multivariate analysis seems to be

quite necessary to find out the relative importance of each variable. Preparation of

Correlation Matrix and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) are the standard devices in this

investigation. From the Correlation Matrix, we can easily find out the nature of bi-variate


Jharkhand, India




relationship of number of variables. The Principal Component Analysis provides the basis of

sorting out a number few components which account for the major amount of explained

variation of the variables. Rests of the components are of negligible importance. Again the

importance of the variables in order of their ranking can be done statistically through PCA.

Firstly, eight morphometric variables are selected to judge the erosional characteristics of the

Basin based on grid-mesh data. Except some correlations with confluence point, all other

variables are correlated with each other positively though relative relief, dissection index,

average slope and ruggedness index are strongly interrelated with each other (Table 5).

Figure 7: Cross Profiles of Sangra Drainage Basin Area (Source: SRTM data, GLCF, 2006)

Table 4: Specific morphometric characteristics of Sangra drainage basin

Parameters Maximum Value Minimum Value Average Value

Relative Relief 198 m. 6 m. 57.21 m.

Average Slope 13.63° 0.66° 5.26°

Dissection Index 0.397 0.028 0.15

Ruggedness Index 0.693 0.003 0.12

Drainage Density 4.75 k.m. 0.04 k.m. 2.02 k.m.

With 47% explanation of 1st principal components ruggedness index become the prime

determinant of drainage basin characteristics. Relative relief and dissection index have

moderate but negative influence in drainage basin dynamics in 2nd

principal component

analysis. Beside this dissection index, relative relief, stream frequency and average slope are

the other pronounced variables for the determination of topographic variation. Again drainage

density, confluence point and source head have moderate influence in the 2nd

and 3rd

principal


Jharkhand, India




component analysis respectively. Relative relief and dissection index have moderate but

negative influence in drainage basin dynamics in 2nd

principal component analysis.

Table 5: Pearsonian product moment correlation matrix of Sangra drainage basin

Correlation

Matrix

RR AS DI RI DD SF SH CP

RR 1.00 0.61 0.83 0.72 0.08 0.30 0.41 -0.05

AS 1.00 0.76 0.43 0.10 0.32 0.22 0.13

DI 1.00 0.64 0.09 0.33 0.42 -0.06

RI 1.00 0.62 0.52 0.37 0.26

DD 1.00 0.56 0.06 0.63

SF 1.00 0.44 0.68

SH 1.00 0.08

CP 1.00

RR= Relative Relief, AS= Average Slope, DI=Dissection Index, RI= Ruggedness Index,

DD=Drainage Density, SF= Stream Frequency, SH=Source Head, CP= Confluence Point

Table 6: Extraction of principal components with cumulative percentages of variance

Variables RR AS DI RI DD SF SH CP

PC 1

(47.00%) 0.791 0.696 0.808 0.867 0.517 0.717 0.551 0.395

PC 2

(71.84%)

-

0.472 -0.338 -0.495 0.050 0.700 0.499 -0.130 0.802

PC3

(82.74%)

-

0.079 -0.267 -0.098 -0.167 -0.262 0.247 0.790 -0.006

PC 1, 2, 3 = Principal Components 1, 2, 3

4.4.1 Test of significance of morphometric variables

It is possible to infer whether the correlation coefficient of bi-variate normal population will

be zero or not by using the test of significance of ‘r’ (product moment correlation coefficient).

It is possible to conclude that whether the correlation is significant or not in this particular

geo-climatic condition of Sangra Drainage Basin. Under the null hypothesis, that the

population correlation is zero, the expression of the student‘t’ distribution with (n-2) degree

of freedom is followed the equation:

T = r.√ (n-2)/ (1-r²)

Here as Ruggedness Index became the prime factor for the development of Sangra Drainage

Basin in PC1 (Table: 6) then it has been considered as independent variable and rest of the

factors are as dependent variables.

In these cases null hypothesis is rejected as the all computed values exceed the tabulated

value in 1% significance level with degree of freedom 65. The correlation coefficients are

immensely significant over a large number of similar observations. Significance of ‘r’ is


Jharkhand, India




directly proportional to the degree of freedom, n-2=65. So, these variables are useful to

regionalize the spatial variations of fluvial erosion.

Table 7: Computation and comparison of ‘t’ based on correlation coefficient of different

morphometric variables

X Y r Computed t Tabulated t at 65 degrees of

freedom 0.01 Significance level

Dissection Index 0.64 6.71

Relative Relief 0.72 8.36

Average Slope 0.43 3.84

Stream Frequency 0.52 4.91

Drainage Density 0.62 6.37

Ruggedness

Index

Source Point 0.37 3.21

2.64

5. Conclusions

Application of various morphometric techniques on a small watershed is an effective method

for classify the land into various planning areas. From the identification of land configuration

we can get different small parts of that basin area and use them into different purposes. In this

research work, we are just focus on the determination of erosional surface and its stage of

evolution of the Sangra Drainage Basin. This work helps to know, what portion of land is

under the useable condition for economically or residential as well as development sector. If

we take, this type of small basin as a planning unit in plateau regions, we should to classify

those basins into different geomorphic area, i.e., hilly region, undulating plain, erosional plain

and flood plain. On the other hand, from the evaluated stage of evolution, we can conclude

the future possibility, if there is any spatial change take place or not. Like wise, the Sangra

Drainage Basin belongs to senile or mature stage of evolution, which indicates this basin

covered by planation surface and this area can used for any planning purpose.

6. References

1. Census of India, Jharkhand State, Rural and Urban population total, (2001).

2. Chorley, R. J. Schumm, S. A. and Sugden, D.E., (1985), Geomorphology,

Methuen and Co. Ltd., London, pp 316-326.

3. Horton, R.E., (1932), Drainage basin characteristics, Trans. Amer. Geophys.

U.14, pp 350-61.

4. Leopold, L. B., Wolman, M.G. and Miller, J.P., (1969), Fluvial processes in

geomorphology, Eurasia Publishing House, New Delhi.

5. Miller, A., (1953), The skin of the earth. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London.

6. Morisawa, M., (1985), Rivers-forms and process, Longman group, London, pp

54-56 and 70-73.

7. Peltier, L.C., (1950), The geographic cycle in Periglacial regions as it is related to

climate geomorphology, Annals of the association of American Geographers, 40,

pp 214-36


Jharkhand, India




8. Prasad, N., (1985), Determination of stages of landscape evolution through relief

measures, Thinkers Library, Allahabad.

9. Schumm, S.A., (1956), The evolution of drainage system and slopes in Badlands

at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Bulletin of Geological Society of America, 67, pp

214-236.

10. Sen, P. K., (1993), Geomorphological analysis of drainage basins, The university

of Burdwan, Burdwan.

11. Singh, R.L., (2008), India-a regional geography, National geographical society of

India, Varanasi.

12. Singh, S., (2002), Geomorphology, Prayag Pustak Bhawan, Allahabad.

13. Strahler, A.N., (1952), Hypsometric analysis (area-altitude) of erosional

topography, Bulletin of Geological Society of America, 63, pp 117-142.

14. Summerfield, M.A., (1991), Global geomorphology, Prentice Hall, New Delhi,

pp 208-212.

Determination of erosion surfaces and stages of evolution ... · Determination of erosion surfaces...

Documents

Transcript of Determination of erosion surfaces and stages of evolution ... · Determination of erosion surfaces...