Morphometric analysis of the Idemili Basin using geospatial techniques
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Morphometric analysis of the Idemili Basin using geospatial techniques Christopher Uche Ezeh 1 & Arinze Tagbo Mozie 1 Received: 10 May 2018 / Accepted: 6 February 2019 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2019
Abstract The response of a watershed to produce runoff after rain event depends on the characteristics of the basin. This characteristic is peculiar to every basin and varies depending on the type of rock, geology, soil, climatic belt, and extent of anthropogenic activities. Information regarding these controlling factors is vital for a sustainable management of the basin. However, many of the watersheds especially in the developing world lack the basic facilities for acquiring the runoff data or other basin’s response to rainfall event like sediment yield. The simplest approach to obtaining such information is via the morphometric parameters of the basin. This necessitated the need for this study. The study carried out a morphometric analysis of the Idemili Basin in southeastern Nigeria by employing geospatial tools in ArcMap to investigate the basin’s characteristics. The basin is a fourth-order basin with a rectilinear drainage pattern. The shape parameters indicate a pear-shaped basin. The mean bifurcation ratio indicates the basin developed in a hilly terrain with somewhat geologic influences over time as it developed on a weak, porous sandstone. Intensive watershed management is needed in the basin to ensure the sustainability of the basin and its ecosystem. The study also demonstrates that geospatial techniques and the digital elevation model are vital tools for watershed characterisation especially in data-scarce regions. Keywords Morphometric . GIS . Geospatial . Analysis . DEM . Nigeria
Introduction Each watershed is distinct from the other based on the differences in their hydro-geomorphology such as the nature of rainfall, geology, soil and land use pattern, and management. Nonetheless, the need to obtain basic information on the diverse hydrologic parameters of the basin cannot be overstressed. However, these data are often unavailable in the developing world. Hence, management options are usually haphazard or reactive upon a disaster. Thus, the morphometric indices or factors provide a relatively simple approach to characterise a basin. This became an essential quantitative approach following the seminal work of Horton (1945). Morphometric analysis involves the quantitative evaluation of stream properties based on their shape and morphologic regions which have particular relevance to drainage pattern,
Editorial handling: Biswajeet Pradhan * Christopher Uche Ezeh [email protected] 1
Department of Geography, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
hydrologic processes, and geomorphology (Doornkamp and King 1971; Strahler 1957; Biswas et al. 2014). Analysis of this nature facilitated the establishments of laws of drainage compositions (Schumm 1956; Horton 1945). &
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The law of stream numbers, which states that: Bthe number of stream segments of successively higher
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