Watershed Prioritization of Wardha River Basin, Maharashtra, India Using Morphometric Parameters: A Remote Sensing and GIS-Based Approach

The present investigation is an effort to prioritize the sub-watersheds of the Wardha River basin using morphometric parameters to identify water conservation measures. Delineation of potential zones for implementation of conservation measures above the entire watershed at similar occurrence is inaccessible as well as uneconomical; consequently, it is a prerequisite to apply viable technique for prioritization of sub-watersheds. In that view, the present research attempted to study various morphological characteristics and to implement geographical information system (GIS) to prioritize sub-watersheds. The Wardha River basin was delineated into 10 sub-watersheds, and morphometric parameters were derived independently for each of the sub-watersheds. For the study stream network along with their order was extracted in geospatial environment. The morphometric characterization was obtained through the measurement of distinct linear and areal aspects over the ten sub-watersheds. It showed imperative role in distinguishing the topographical and hydrological behaviour of the watershed. Based on morphometric analysis, the watershed has been classified into three categories as high, medium and low in terms of priority for conservation and management of natural resources. The result of prioritization analysis revealed that the sub-watersheds, such as SW1, SW4, SW5 and SW7, are the zones having lowest composite score and were considered under high priority which clearly indicates that it is subjected to maximum soil erosion, and hence, these may be taken for conservation measures by planners and decision makers for local-specific planning and development. Low-prioritized zone is represented by SW10, and sub-watersheds SW2, SW3, SW6, SW8 and SW9 are categorized under medium-priority zone.