Morphological study of wadi al-zarzeer watershed using GIS technique

Abstract

Water availability is considered to be one of the key factors for rapid development and urbanization . however , the over exploitation of water resources has resulted in condition of un-sustainability and environment degradation ,each watershed has a number of distinct characteristics ( morphometric parameters) , which govern the amount of precipitation received, and runoff produced, morphological characteristics like stream order , stream number, bifurcation ratio, watershed perimeter , length of watershed , form factor, drainage density, drainage frequency, elongation ratio , constant of channel maintenance , circulation ratio, maximum watershed relief ,relief ratio , ruggedness number, relative relief, aerial extent, watershed length and width, channel length, channel slop and relief aspects. The morphometric analysis of a watershed plays an important role in deciding the hydrological behavior such as runoff, soil erosion , sediment delivery ratio etc. of a watershed. Wadi Al Zarzeer ( watershed) was considered for such a study. The boundary of catchment, sun-catchment, and stream network of the watershed under study, which located at wadi al zarzeer were determined using geographical information system (GIS) . the aerial and photogrammetric map were used for land use information. Various linear and relief parameters of the study area were determined using gis . at the end the amount of surface runoff was estimated for the project area.