Spatiotemporal Migration of the River Ganga in Middle Ganga Plane: Application of Remote Sensing and GIS Technique
- PDF / 7,933,298 Bytes
- 13 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 2 Downloads / 173 Views
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Spatiotemporal Migration of the River Ganga in Middle Ganga Plane: Application of Remote Sensing and GIS Technique S. Singh1
•
K. Prakash2 • U. K. Shukla2
Received: 19 March 2020 / Accepted: 7 September 2020 Ó Indian Society of Remote Sensing 2020
Abstract The process of channel migration becomes crucial to a populace living in or near the floodplain or to government organizations involved in planning or upholding the infrastructure within or nearby the floodplains. Spatiotemporal migration of the River Ganga in the Middle Ganga Plain for about forty years (1972–2018) was measured using Landsat images, coupled with extensive ground checks. Assessment of satellite images of 1972, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2018 reveals the Ganga River migrated within its valley, demonstrating significant changes in the channel geometry on a decadal scale. Heavy rains promote the enhancement of the sediment load in the channel triggering a further increase in the sinuosity index. However, the overall sinuous nature of the Ganga River channel is mainly fault-controlled. The variable lateral migration of the channel seems related to heavy rains and reactivation of chute channels within the river valleys. The lateral movement of the river is one of the critical factor responsible for the failure of the older floodplain (bank) within the valley by the undercutting process. Keywords Riverbank migration River Ganga Channel migration Remote sensing
Introduction The river migration across floodplains and the sporadic erosion of River Valley Terrace Surface are a natural process (Leopold et al. 1964; Yang 1971; Singh et al. 1999; Randle 2006; Pati et al. 2008; Chakraborty and Mukhopadhyay 2015). Channel shift is a common phenomenon in meandering and braided river systems on Earth’s surface. In general, channel shift is mainly the river movement back and across its valley over a period of time (Chakraborty and Mukhopadhyay 2015). River migration concerning space and time is a manifestation of a river to its anthropogenic and natural activities. Such changes may include 2D changes (e.g., adjustments in channel planform) along with specific 1D change (e.g., changes in depth, width, and thalweg length) in the & S. Singh [email protected] 1
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research—Kolkata, Kolkata, India
2
Department of Geology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
river morphology (Wallick et al. 2006; Ahmed et al. 2018). However, if the channels incised as it is the case with most of the rivers of the central Ganga Plain, they can migrate inside their valleys only. The process of channel migration becomes crucial to a populace living in or near the floodplain or to government organizations involved in planning or upholding the infrastructure within or nearby the floodplains. Fluvial architecture and channel pattern are sensitive indicators of river migration and can accommodate in response to changing sediment load, hydrology, and active tectonics (Goswami et al. 1999; S
Data Loading...
