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This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be selfarchived in electronic repositories. Morphological mapping plays an essential role in understanding river processes. The river patterns of the study area mainly controlled by geological nature.
This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be selfarchived in electronic repositories. Morphological mapping plays an essential role in understanding river processes. The river patterns of the study area mainly controlled by geological nature.
This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be selfarchived in electronic repositories. Morphological mapping plays an essential role in understanding river processes. The river patterns of the study area mainly controlled by geological nature.
Arab J Geosci (2013) 6:1871-1881 DOI 10.1007/s12517-011-0492-3 Morphological characteristics of Tirumalairajan river, East Coast of India a GIS approach Senapathi Venkatramanan, Thirunavukkarasu Ramkumar, Irudhayanathan Anithamary & Poovalinga Ganesh 1 3 Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Saudi Society for Geosciences. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self- archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com. ORIGINAL PAPER Morphological characteristics of Tirumalairajan river, East Coast of Indiaa GIS approach Senapathi Venkatramanan & Thirunavukkarasu Ramkumar & Irudhayanathan Anithamary & Poovalinga Ganesh Received: 22 August 2011 / Accepted: 25 November 2011 / Published online: 7 December 2011 #Saudi Society for Geosciences 2011 Abstract Morphological mapping plays an essential role in understanding river processes. Evaluation of the morpho- logical parameters requires preparation of basin, upstream and downstream, stream link, stream network, stream order, flow direction, flow accumulation, and digital elevation model, which help to understand the nature of the river. Assessments of morphological digital maps provide up- stream and downstream flow rates, slope variation, sedimen- tation, and specific stream erosive power in river systems. The river patterns of the study area mainly controlled by geological nature. Therefore, this paper discusses conceptu- al foundations and illustrates how mapping approaches can be used to produce morphological information of Tiruma- lairajan river systems. Keywords GIS . River morphology . Tirumalairajan . East coast of India Introduction Geographic information systems (GIS) play an important role in the analysis of morphology of river basins. Typical applica- tions are computations of flow directions, flow accumulation, upstream and downstream, stream link, stream network, stream order, and digital elevation models (DEMs) (Fernandez et al. 2003; Van Rompaey et al. 2001). Geomorphological mapping plays an essential role in understanding the various river processes (Blaszczynski 1997; Bishop and Shroder 2004). Historically, morphological mapping has been based upon integration of multidisciplinary information from the field, remotely sensed data, and cartographic map products. Regional-scale morphology and physiographic analysis and mapping (Baker 1986) were based upon the interpretation of photography and smaller-scale maps to classify terrain types/ features at the regional (physiographic) scale. Detailed mor- phological mapping was based upon surveying and other in situ measurements, although detailed large-scale morphologi- cal maps did not exist for many areas. These traditional map- ping approaches emphasized qualitative interpretation, as frequently dictated by the inherent limitations associated with field-work, paucity of digital spacetime data, and human a priori field/geographic experience and domain knowledge. Consequently, the power of the human visualization system was primarily relied upon, introducing subjectivity and biases with respect to selection of criteria for terrain segmentation and placement of boundaries (Quinn et al. 1991; Freeman 1991; Tarboton 1997; Bishop et al. 2011). Multiple approaches are used to create river morphology mapping, and DEM is a common approach in creating river terrain models (Walsh et al. 1997; Tate and Wood 2001; Bishop et al. 2003). Although geological controls induce significant local discontinuity to these general trends apparent in river longitudinal profiles, it is nonetheless the downstream changes in these variables that produce the striking downstream differences in morphology that are evident along all river systems (Knighton 1999). Meanwhile, the traditional geomorphological paper maps with their scientific understanding of the landscape have hardly developed over the last decades. Instead, the use of GIS has to some extent replaced such maps with thematic digital maps that highlight a specific theme or application. The focus has thus shifted from general overviews and contexts to specific S. Venkatramanan (*) : T. Ramkumar : I. Anithamary Department of Earth Sciences, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Tamilnadu, India e-mail: venkatramanansenapathi@gmail.com T. Ramkumar e-mail: tratrj@gmail.com P. Ganesh Core Logic India, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India Arab J Geosci (2013) 6:18711881 DOI 10.1007/s12517-011-0492-3 Author's personal copy themes or problems to be solved. The use of GIS as a tool in geomorphology, however, broadens the opportunities for both research and practical applications (Butler and Walsh 1998; Reinfeldsa et al. 2004; Conoscenti et al. 2008; Zhang et al. 2009; Yanga and Jin 2010; Bhagwat et al. 2011). The objective of this paper is to set the stage for this volume and address important concepts and issues if geo- morphologists are to effectively use geospatial technologies. Specifically, we focus on conceptual foundations and illus- trate how spatial mapping approaches can be used to pro- duce morphological information related to basin, flow directions, flow accumulation, upstream and downstream, stream link, stream network, stream order, and DEM. Back ground of the study area General setup The study area (Fig. 1) is located between latitudes 1052 to 1053 N and longitudes 7948 to 7951 E in east coast of India. Tirumalairajan River generally flows from west to east, and the pattern is mainly sub-parallel. The eastern coastal part near Tirumalairajapattinam is characterized by back water. This river, a major waterway of the Trichy and Thanjavur district, is formed by the bifurcation of the Cauvery flows at Trichy and finally joins the Bengal. Geology of the study area The geology of the present study area (Fig. 2) mainly comprises of quaternary sediments increases south of Cole- roon River. These sediments have been delineated as allu- vial plain deposit of the Cauvery River and its distributaries, narrow fluvio-marine deltaic plain deposits, and marine coastal plain deposits (east coast formation). The fluvial deposits comprise flood plain, flood basin, point bar, chan- nel bar, and paleo-channels with admixtures of sand, silt, and clay. The deltaic plain includes paleo-tidal flats, with clays and sands and sand ridges or gray brown sand. The marine coastal plains include beach, tidal flats, salt marsh, mangrove swamps, and deposits of sand and clay. The Fig. 1 Location of the Tirumalairajan River 1872 Arab J Geosci (2013) 6:18711881 Author's personal copy mouth of the river comprises alluvium deposits which are composed of clays and silts. The general stratigraphy suc- cession of the study area is divided into three formations such as recent to sub-recent, Pliocene, and Mio-Pliocene formations. Recent and sub-recent: brown sands, alluvium Pliocene: Karaikal beds Mio-Pliocene: Cuddalore formation Climate and rainfall of the study area The climate of the area is generally hot, semidry, and trop- ical. March to June are the hottest months, and December to February are the cooler months of the year. The major portion of the annual rainfall is received during the northeast monsoon period recorded during October to December. A very meager amount of rainfall is received during the sum- mer, January to April, and the remaining precipitation is received during the southwest monsoon period from June to September. The rainfall data of the present study are given in Table 1. Methodology River Tirumalairajan morphological features were delineat- ed from rectified, topographic maps of 58M/13 and 16 (1:50,000 scale) on polyconic projection system with the help of GIS software. The methodology of generation of thematic maps such as basin, flow directions, flow accumu- lation, upstream and downstream, stream link, stream net- work, stream order, and DEM were prepared by ARC GIS (Version 9.3) software. All the thematic maps are verified through field checks. The thematic details thus finalized are transferred to the base map prepared from the survey of India toposheets. Results and discussion River basin The fundamental unit of virtually all watershed and fluvial investigations is the river basin (Fig. 3) and is a finite area whose runoff is channeled through a single outlet (Zavoianu Legend Fluvial (Qf), Fluvio Marine (Qfm), Aeolian (Qa) and Marine (Qm) Quternary sediment of sand, silt and clay. Ceramic, brick & tile clays River Fig. 2 Geology map of the study area Arab J Geosci (2013) 6:18711881 1873 Author's personal copy 1985). A drainage divide is simply a ridgeline on either side of which water flows to different streams (Jarvis 1977). Therefore, we can begin drawing our perimeter line by tracing its crest. Ridges are most easily recognized as a series of bent contour lines whose apex point downhill. The higher range of basin observed is in the southern direction. In the middle range, it is observed at the center of the river. The river basin was determining areas with erosion and deposit features by using the length and width of the river. Thus, the morphologically effective area could be established (Hauer and Habersack 2009). The importance of the need to understand the slope effect is related to the prediction of future sites of bank erosion. The study area basin shows the higher depression level was noticed in southern part of the study area when compared with the northern part, indicating the erosion activity dominating this part. The lower level of the study indicates more amounts of sediment deposition. So the silt and clay deposits are high in the northern part, indicating the low energy level of the river. Whereas the southern part of the basin, mainly com- posed of sand grains, indicates the runoff is more when compared with the northern part of the study area (Ramos and Gracia 2011). Drainage pattern (stream network) A drainage map is a plan of all streams or river (Fig. 4). Drainage analysis involves a detailed examination of the drainage patterns, drainage texture, and stream patterns. The drainage pattern map has been prepared from a survey of India toposheets. The drainage type is mainly dentritic, Table 1 Rainfall (mm) data of the study area S. no Month 2007 2008 2009 2010 1 January 0.22 59.58 52.74 53.73 2 February 31.58 13.90 0.00 0.00 3 March 0.00 337.99 182.65 0.07 4 April 13.71 20.55 80.92 7.04 5 May 4.40 31.56 41.83 115.59 6 June 27.73 26.26 6.63 96.83 7 July 58.14 17.55 2.99 49.77 8 August 194.72 75.85 102.24 182.22 9 September 76.74 45.36 37.57 7.27 10 October 511.02 276.93 107.16 122.17 11 November 135.67 797.28 698.55 385.33 12 December 416.15 178.23 548.72 216.21 Total 1,470.08 1,881.04 1,862.00 1,236.23 Fig. 3 River basin of the Tirumalairajan River 1874 Arab J Geosci (2013) 6:18711881 Author's personal copy and a few locations have the trellis type. It is also observed that, in almost all rivers, new drainages have come up, and a stream has changed its course in the center portion of the study area. Stream orders are classified on the basis of its origin. The main stream has the highest order from river mouth and upstream to the head of a stream, and the largest tributary has lower stream order by 1 than the stream. Generally, as stream order increases, the numbers and the mean gradient of streams decrease in an inverse geometric ratio and the mean length of streams and the mean area of drainage basin increase. The study area streams have the shortest, and the steepest streams have the smallest drainage basins. A first-order stream network was observed in the majority of the area. The underlying geology, exogenic and endogenic activities, and drainage morphology of the river are considerable changes in climate during the Quaternary, influ- encing the genesis and morphology of landforms (Subra- manyan 1981). In this study area, drainage pattern helped to identify the various fluvio-marine processes and deposits in- cluding beach, tidal flats, salt marsh, mangrove swamps, flood plain, flood basin, point bar, channel bar, and paleo-channels. It is also helpful to identify the potential groundwater zone of the study area. The hydrological analysis was performed (Gustafsson and Pasadena 1993; Biedenharn et al. 2008; Domnguez et al. 2010; Tejaswini et al. 2011) considering the bridge construct in order to establish the river network expected in minor and extreme events and the vulnerability of the infrastructure. The river drainage pattern is divided into four orders and distributed into the beach zone and wetlands where its discharge is significant to maintain the ecosystems. Digital elevation model The rivers are highly responsive landforms; they may register morphological phenomena (Hesterberg et al. 2000; Duvall et al. 2004; Carretier et al. 2006) because DEM is very sensitive in visualizing the river process (Keller and Pinter 1996). The digital elevation model map (Fig. 5) of the Tirumalairajan River reveals that higher ranges from 9 to 19 are observed at the western direction, mainly confined to the upstream Fig. 4 Drainage map showing the Tirumalairajan River Arab J Geosci (2013) 6:18711881 1875 Author's personal copy direction of river, whereas the lower ranging of elevation is noticed from the western part of the study area. It is mainly associated with the mouth of the river. So DEM analy- sis was used to differentiate the elevation levels of the river. The higher DEM level was observed at the west- ern part of the river basin, indicating the slope of the terrain increases towards the upstream direction of the river. Whereas the lower level of DEM was observed in the eastern direction of the study area, indicating the river flow velocity was very low and slope of the decrease toward mouth of the river. The upstream areas are characterized by flash floods during the rainy season in October to November and the summer season in April to June. The duration of the floods is short be- cause of the limited drainage area, but the instantaneous flood discharge can be large (Oguchi et al. 2001). Wohl (1992) indicates that such a condition with strong hy- draulic action is favorable for the development of large- scale alternation of steep and flat segments similar to step-pool morphology, and the results of our study sup- port this inference. A smooth and graded river longitu- dinal profile though has been expected to occur in rapidly eroding areas with large erosional power of streams (Flint 1974; Snow and Slingerland 1987). In the environmental parameters examined, the DEM, stream order, flow pattern, river gradient, and drainage area are more essen- tial factors in determining stream hydraulics and erosive power. Upstream and downstream It is one of the most commonly adopted morphological parameter for hydrological analysis and for comparing the behavior of the various direction of the river. High upstream values were observed at the center portion of the river basin and downstream direction of the river observed at eastern direction of the river basin. Upstream and downstream are the important morphological parameters of the river. It is useful to assess the groundwater infiltration, groundwater recharge, sediment load, and flood zone of the area. This similar observation was made by Arpita Pankaj and Pankaj Kumar (2009) in Song River, Uttarakhand (Fig. 6a, b). The upstream and downstream pattern provides more informa- tion about the river morphological characteristics. The up- stream pattern is shown as irregular and flows toward the basin of the river, indicating the inclined slope nature of the study area. The outer part of the river basin indicates the gentle slope of the study area. It is the most important parameter to control the ground water potential of the study area. The upstream and downstream pattern of the study Fig. 5 Digital elevation model of the study area 1876 Arab J Geosci (2013) 6:18711881 Author's personal copy Fig. 6 a, b Upstream and down- stream direction of the Tirumalairajan River Arab J Geosci (2013) 6:18711881 1877 Author's personal copy Fig. 7 a, b Map showing the flow direction and flow accumulation of the present study 1878 Arab J Geosci (2013) 6:18711881 Author's personal copy Fig. 8 a, b Stream link and net- work pattern of the river Arab J Geosci (2013) 6:18711881 1879 Author's personal copy area indicates that the western and northwestern part of the study area is good ground water potential zone (Agarwal 1998; Oguchi et al. 2001). Flow direction and flow accumulation A course of running water usually flowed in a particular direction in a defined channel, discharging into some other stream or body of water. Streams may be classified as follows: In relation to time, it can be ephemeral, intermittent or seasonal, and perennial (Lo 1992). Flow direction uses a DEM to determine the direction of flow from every cell in the raster. Flow accumulation, in its simplest form, is the number of upslope cells that flow into each cell. By apply- ing a threshold value to the results of flow accumulation, a stream network can be delineated. Flow direction and flow accumulation is an important tool of GIS in identifying morphological characteristics of the river. The flow direc- tion of the river indicates the high river velocity. In the present study area, the high flow direction value of the river is noticed at the river mouth. It indicates, flow accumulation grid measured upstream accumulated study area (Fig. 7a, b). In the present study, flow direction and accumulation spatial pattern indicates the western direction of the study area. It is the important hydrological tool of the rivers (Shuttleworth et al. 2005). Classifying the weighted flow direction and ac- cumulation grid by higher values indicate that the stream network accumulates high loads because of the favorable geology within their contributing river morphology. It is interesting to note that, in many cases, the weighted flow accumulation increases with increasing distance down- stream, and then diminishes as the flow accumulation becomes weighted towards flow from young sediments deposited in western part of the study area. Stream network and link Stream link and network analysis of the river morphology (Fig. 8a, b) is one of the most significant hydrological features of the basin as it reveals that surface runoff charac- teristics streams of relatively smaller value are character- istics of areas with larger slopes and finer textures (Nag 1998; Vittala et al. 2004; PrezPea et al. 2009; Bhagwat et al. 2011). Longer values of streams are generally indica- tive of flatter gradients. The numbers of streams of various orders in the basin are counted, and their lengths from mouth to drainage divide are measured with the help of GIS software. The stream link is noticed in southern direc- tion of the river basin which shows linear pattern, and it indicates the homogenous rock material subjected to weath- ering characteristics of the basin. Deviation from its general behavior indicates that the terrain is characterized by varia- tion in lithology and topography. The individual streams are linked together and form a network of the streams. Stream network of the study area mainly focused on the river basin. Conclusion The study reveals that GIS-based approach in morphologi- cal characteristics of Tirumalairajan River basin level is more appropriate than the conventional methods. GIS- based approach facilitates analysis of different morphologi- cal characteristics of thematic maps and to explore the relationship between the basin, stream order and network, flow accumulation and direction, upstream and downstream pattern, and DEM. The study shows that systematic analysis of morphological features through integrated GIS can be used effectively in DEM to understand the spatial distribu- tion of river network characteristics and status of river process. This morphological map reveals the stream power, velocity, slope variation, and sediment depositional process- es of the river. Characterization of inlet morphology is dependent on the availability of surveys with high temporal and spatial thematic maps. Although these data do not span a full bypassing cycle, they provide considerable scope for analysis of morphology and behavior. Continued monitoring at this resolution is essential for the advancement of morpho- logical understanding. 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