Watershed and Drainage Delineation System: A Case
Study of Pokhara
Abstract
The watershed delineation can be carried out
manually by using thematic maps of the study
area but these are mostly outdated, scarce and
tedious for Pokhara city. Watershed boundaries
need to be delineated accurately because the
areas and perimeters of watersheds are used
in many hydrological analyses. Due to lack of
proper drainage system, the roads and streets
are full of water in rainy season. People can’t
walk along the street due to high volume of
water flow. This also directly affects the
vehicles movement. In this study, we used 30m
Aster Global DEM and Geographic Information
System (GIS) technique. We analyzed the
hydrologic functions like fill, flow direction, flow
accumulation, stream networking, stream order
etc.
Study Area
Pokhara Metropolitan City (PMC) is the largest
metropolitan of Nepal occupying area of 464.24
sq km. The elevation ranges from 505 m (Kotre)
to 2650 m (Armala) above sea level. The total
area of PMC is 464.94 km² and which
represents 23.01 percent area of the Kaski
district and 0.31 percent area of the country [1].
Introduction
A drainage basin or watershed is the area
throughout which surface water drains into a
particular body of surface water. It combines
with other watersheds to form network of rivers
and streams that progressively drain into larger
water areas. The body of water might be a
stream, lake, wetland, ocean, spring or pond. It
is important to delineate a drainage basin in
any study of the water budget of an area, the
impact of some activity that might affect quality
or quantity of water in a basin, or the potential
development of water resources in a basin [2].
Generally, watershed is delineated from a
topographic map. In this case, we delineated
watershed from Digital Elevation Model (DEM)
data. Use of GIS has facilitated much of the
work of hydrologists. The use of DEMs in
particular has made watershed delineation a
smooth procedure. Major steps involved in
delineation of watershed includes filling of
DEM, Flow Direction Raster generation, Flow
Accumulation Raster, Determining Pour Points
and finally watershed delineation [3][4].
Contact
1. Tek Bahadur Kshetri (teksondada@gmail.com)
2. Kapil Gnawali (kapilgyawali2055@gmail.com)
3. Rabin Ojha (rabenojha@gmail.com)
4. Bibek Chand (bibekchand457@gmail.com)
Institute of Engineering, Pashchimanchal Campus
Lamachaur-16, Pokhara
Methods and Materials
In this study, we used 30m resolution of Aster Global DEM data of Pokhara
Metropolitan City from USGS Earth Explorer. We loaded this data on ArcGIS and
built a suitable model. The result obtained from model was again visualized by
using different visualization techniques and we further classified the drainage to
obtain the better result. Simply methodology of our study can be described in
four level.
Data Build model Classify
Output Map
Acquisition in ArcGIS Features
Figure (1) : Methodology in short form Table (1) : Number of nodes associated with
drainage component
Flow Flow
Aster DEM Fill Sink Direction Accumulation
Conclusion
Apply
Automatic delineation of watershed is
Threshold presented in this poster. The methodology have
been incorporated in ArcGIS 10.6 developed by
Drainage
Pour Point ESRI. Watershed boundaries can be found out
Network Validation using different techniques. Watershed is
Identification
Extraction manually delineated on topographic map
sheets or derived from Digital Elevation model.
Digital Elevation Models are being employed
Statistics and Watershed with increased frequency in the pursuit of
Analysis Delineation watershed-based approaches for water
resources studies and assessments. The
utilization of DEM and GIS is considered to be
Figure (2) : Methodology in Brief
the best one. We studied Pokhara valley of
Nepal for our case study. These results can be
incorporated in various sectors like disaster
Results resilience modeling, hydrological modeling, etc.
Applications
• To provide necessary inputs for hydrological
modelling.
• Flood prediction modelling and snow melt
runoff models etc.
• Watershed analysis provides catchment
boundaries but also hydrological parameters
useful for management programs.
Acknowledgement
We are extremely privileged to have got this all
along the completion of our project. We are
very thankful to sir Er. Niraj K.C., who guided us
for this project. Also we would like to express
our gratitude towards Geomatics Engineering
Students’ Association of Nepal (GESAN) for
providing us this platform.
References
1.
2.
Open space: Typology and distribution in Pokhara Lekhnath metropolitan city. The Geographical Journal of Nepal. Vol. 11: 25-44
ESRI (2012). An overview of the Hydrology toolset. <http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/tools/spatial-analyst-toolbox/an-overview-of-the-hydrology-tools.htm>
3.
4.
Connors, T. (2008). How Watersheds Work. Howstuffworks.com. <https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/conservation/issues/watershed.htm>
Saud, M.A. (2012). Use of Remote Sensing and GIS to Analyze Drainage System in Flood Occurrence, Jeddah - Western Saudi Coast. Space Research Institute.
5. Chukwuocha, A.C. & Igbokwe, J.I. (2014). Delineation and Characterization of Sub-catchments of Owerri, South East Nigeria, Using GIS. American Journal of Geographic
Information System. 3(1):1-9
6. Watson, I. and Burnett, A.D. (2000). “Hydrology, an environmental approach”. Lewis Publishers, U.S.A.