16. Remote Sensing and GIS-Based Morphometric Analysis of Spiti River Basin

Spiti river basin is located in the north-eastern part of Himachal Pradesh, India. The Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), 2011 has been used in the present study. Three different basins have been delineated by using hydrological tool given in the ArcGIS 10.1. They are named as Spiti, Tsarap Chu and Parechu basins with an area of 5419, 781 and 651 sq. km, respectively. The morphometric parameters of all the three sub-basins have been calculated. ArcGIS 10.1 software was used for delineation and computation of drainage parameters and also for generating map layout. All the morphometric parameters of Spiti river basin provide an important information about drainage density, stream frequency, soil texture, slope aspect, drainage pattern, type of relief, stream order and the total number of streams. Morphometric analysis of the study area of all the three sub-basins represents sub-dendritic to dendritic drainage pattern with moderate to very fine drainage texture. The bifurcation ratio of all three basins indicates normal basin category and presence of low drainage density suggesting that the region has highly permeable sub-soil.