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Understanding Drainage Basins and Morphometry

Drainage refers to the river system of an area, with a drainage basin being the area drained by a single river system. The watershed boundary is defined by elevation contours, and morphometric analysis quantitatively measures landforms to understand drainage basin characteristics and hydrology. This analysis helps in correlating various parameters that describe drainage basins and their hydrological processes.

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13 views1 page

Understanding Drainage Basins and Morphometry

Drainage refers to the river system of an area, with a drainage basin being the area drained by a single river system. The watershed boundary is defined by elevation contours, and morphometric analysis quantitatively measures landforms to understand drainage basin characteristics and hydrology. This analysis helps in correlating various parameters that describe drainage basins and their hydrological processes.

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aurcmcivil
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Drainage: The term ‘drainage means the river system of an area.

It is a system of
flowing water from the higher level to the lower level.

Drainage Basin : Some small streams flowing from different directions come together
to form the main river, which ultimately drains into a large water body such as a lake
or a sea. The area drained by a single river system is called a drainage basin.
Drainage basin, also called catchment area, or (in North America) watershed,
area from which all precipitation flows to a single stream or set of streams. The
boundary between drainage basins is a drainage divide: all the precipitation on
opposite sides of a drainage divide will flow into different drainage basins.

A drainage basin provides a limited surface area within which physical processes
pertinent to the general hydrology may be considered. The climatic variables and the
water and sediment discharge, water storage, and evapotranspiration may be
measured; from these measurements, denudation rates and moisture and energy
balances may be derived, each of which is useful in the consideration and
understanding of landscape formation.

∎ Watershed boundary is delineated by drawing lines. perpendicular to the


What is delineation of watershed?

elevation contour lines for land. perpendicular to the elevation contour lines for land.
that drains to outlet.

Morphometric analysis is a quantitative measurement and


mathematical analysis of landforms. It plays a significant role in understanding the
geohydrological characteristics of a drainage basin in relation to the terrain feature
and its flow patterns.
What is drainage morphometry?
Morphometry is the measurement and mathematical analysis of the configuration of
the earth's surface and of the shape and dimension of its landforms [1]. The form
and structure of drainage basins and their associated drainage networks are
described by their morphometric parameters.

Morphometric analysis, quantitative description and analysis of landforms as


practiced in geomorphology that may be applied to a particular kind of landform or
to drainage basins and large regions generally. Formulas for right circular cones
have been fitted to the configurations of alluvial fans, logarithmic spirals have been
used to describe certain shapes of beaches, and drumlins, spoon-shaped glacial
landforms, have been found to accord to the form of the lemniscate curve. With
regard to drainage basins, many quantitative measures have been developed to
describe valley side and channel slopes, relief, area, drainage network type and
extent, and other variables. Attempts to correlate
statistically parameters defining drainage basin characteristics and basin hydrology,
as in studies of sediment yield, are generally designated as morphometric analyses.

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