Morphometric Resolution of Laphri River Basin, Chotonagpur Plateau, India

Abstract

The morphometric study is a quantitative description and analysis of the terrain surface and any landform unit. In the present study an attempt has been made to analyze the morphometric resolution of the Laphri river basin flowing in the western part of the Chotonagpur plateau. Based on the secondary data obtained from the topographical map bearing sheet no. 73 A/4 on the scale of 1:50,000 of Survey of India, various parameters covering linear, areal, and relief aspects of morphometry have been adopted to study the morphometric characteristics of the said river basin. For the cartographic representation, QGIS (Version 2.14.21) software has been used. The results show that the watershed is classified 5th order drainage basin having a bifurcation ratio of 3.46, which indicates homogeneous rock type and drainage pattern is less disturbed by geological structure. Hypsometric analysis indicates the mature stage of the river basin. More than 50% area is having low relative relief (20m – 88m) and more than 63% of the area are under moderate slope (6° - 11°). However, this work tries to deal with the theoretical view on the river basin; this may be helpful to plan the land use pattern for the demographic change for the basin dwellers.