Watershed Prioritization Based on Morphometric Parameters and PCA Technique: A Case Study of Deonar River Sub Basin, Sidhi Area, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

Watershed prioritization is beneficial for soil, groundwater development as well as for the implementation of the artificial recharge schemes. It is a well-known scientific process of drainage network delineation and ranking of different sub-watersheds of a basin. This is the mostly adopted morphometric interpretation and assessment technique and used for prioritization of watershed. In the present study, morphometric analysis of the Deonar river sub basin has been carried out to interpret and assess its hydrological importance. The study was carried out using geospatial approach and it is reflected in morphometric parameters such as linear, areal and relief aspects of the watershed. Detailed morphometric analysis and drainage map has been prepared from ASTER DEM (digital elevation model) having 30m spatial resolution using GIS environment. The delineated and analysed morphometric parameters are helpful for planning of soil and water conservation with the PCA approach. Principal component analysis (PCA) is a well-known technique that reduces the dimensionality of the given input data set which maximizes the amount of variance information. The delineated drainage order comes 1 to 5 and the watershed comprises of 6 sub-watersheds named as SW-I to SW-VI were analyzed. Based on Deonar river sub basin morphometric analysis, the sub-watershed is categorised into three classes as high, medium and low priority zones. Watershed prioritization and correlation of morphometric parameters of the Deonar river basin illustrates and indicates the high priority due to the greater degree of erosion. The analysed result is useful for making better planning and management, to identify the artificial recharge structures of the various sub-watersheds for improving the water potentiality.