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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMATICS AND GEOSCIENCES

Volume 6, No 2, 2015

© Copyright by the authors - Licensee IPA- Under Creative Commons license 3.0

Research article ISSN 0976 – 4380

Submitted on March 2015 published on November 2015 1585

Identification and delineation of threshold lower Yamuna River basin in

Uttar Pradesh Swati Jain1, Ashraf M2

1- Research Scholar at Department of Geography, Allahabad University

2- Research Scholar at Department of Geography, Patna University

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

India is world’s seventh largest country considering its area and it has abundant water

bodies/resources running from north to south and east to west. India’s rivers are mainly

divided as Himalayan, peninsular, coastal, and inland-drainage basin rivers. Himalayan rivers

are snow fed and maintain a high to medium rate of flow throughout the year. The massive

annual mean rainfall amounts in the Himalayan catchments further add to their flow. During

the monsoon months of June to September, the catchments are prone to flooding. The

principal Himalayan Rivers are the Indus, the legendary Ganges and the Brahmaputra.

Yamuna River is the principal tributary of the river Ganges which is divided into three sub

basins namely Upper, Middle and Lower by the Central Water Commission of India. The

Lower Yamuna river basin which majorly includes Chambal, Sind, Betwa, Ken and Tons

rivers is the largest among them expanding in three states Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and

Uttar Pradesh. River Yamuna majorly drains through Uttar Pradesh. According to Central

Water Commission the area of entire Yamuna River basin is more than three lakh fifty

thousand square kilometers and the Lower Yamuna River basin which is expanded over three

states Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, accounts nearly 70% of the total

Yamuna River basin. Clearly the area of Lower Yamuna basin is too large and the area

coming discretely under the boundary of Uttar Pradesh has neither been delineated separately

nor identified individually. With the help of Remote sensing and GIS technique the present

study tries to identify and delineate the threshold of Lower Yamuna river basin’s extent in

Uttar Pradesh.

Keywords: Drainage basin, Catchments, Lower Yamuna River basin, Remote Sensing, GIS

1. Introduction

A river drainage basin is the land that water flows across or under on its way to a river. This

land area receives water from precipitation (i.e., rainfall or snowfall) and drains downhill into

river, lake, reservoir, sea or ocean. The drainage basin acts like a funnel, collecting all the

water within the area covered by the basin and channeling it into a waterway. It is the

drainage basin where much of the hydrologic action takes place. Indeed it can be called as the

natural laboratory of hydrology.

The present research is mainly based on the Lower Yamuna River Basin which covers the

parts of Uttar Pradesh. The whole Yamuna River basin is more than 350000km2 in area but

more than 70% of it comes under the area of Lower Yamuna River catchment area. Water is

one of the most important natural resource and rivers, drainage basins and its catchment areas

are of prime concern for the sustainable development of the area. The current water

management at a broader level is broken in fundamental ways which prohibit the river’s

restoration: there is no proper accounting of water use by cities, agriculture or industry; no


Uttar Pradesh

Swati Jain, Ashraf M

International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences

Volume 6 Issue 2, 2015 1586

dedicated flow to sustain the river’s ecosystem; no jurisdictional coordination of the river’s

protection; lack of integration of existing studies, knowledge or expertise on the river;

insufficient funds for basic operations at water treatment facilities; and harmful policies

across all sectors. There is no long-term view of managing and sustaining the river basin for

the environment or future generations (Yamuna Action Plan Report; 2002).

There has been a long history of conflict of interest between states and centre over the

distribution and management of water resources in India (Lakshmikant; 2014). One of the

major challenges in regional decision making is creating spatially explicit and technically

sound analyses of future patterns of landscapes, river networks, land uses, and resource

availability (Carbonneau and Piegay; 2012). Future resources and landscape patterns of a

river basin are shaped by thousands of decisions made each day by individuals, organizations

and communities. The delineation of Lower Yamuna river basin under the boundary of state

of Uttar Pradesh (India) will help the provincial government and local authorities to plan for

the better management of this area. The clear identification of Lower Yamuna River Basin

(LYRB) under Uttar Pradesh will assist the creation of maps of land use and land cover

(LULC) change over time, created in part from remotely sensed information, will provide an

empirical source of evidence for the trajectories of landscape change. It will help to analyze

its major sub basins and will demonstrate the importance of finding new strategies to gain

more room for river networks in human-dominated landscapes, while acknowledging the real

and largely irreversible investments that have already been made in these biologically and

culturally important parts of human settlements. The spatial framework of coupled human

and natural systems in the river basin required an extensive and detailed land cover

representation (Hulse et al., 2004). Stream networks and large floodplain rivers strongly

influence abundance and distribution of aquatic communities and terrestrial wildlife (Hulse

and Gregory, 2003). Delineation of Lower Yamuna River Basin will enable the state

government to adopt policies and practices that can have influence on the recovery of reduced

natural resources over the time. The restoration practices and changes in land use policies can

reverse long term trends in natural resource declines even in the face of a doubling of the

human population.

2. Study area

According to Central Water Commission India the geographical extent of the Yamuna Lower

sub-basin lies between 77° 6' to 81° 55' east longitudes and 22° 51' to 28° 1' north latitudes of

the country (Report on Ganga Basin., 2012). The Sind, the Betwa, the Dhasan, the Ken rivers

are the major tributaries in the Yamuna lower sub-basin. The Lower Yamuna sub-basin is the

largest sub-basin of the Yamuna River. The sub-basin majorly covers the states of Uttar

Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Geographically, lower Yamuna basin includes

the area from confluence point with Chambal including all right and left bank tributaries,

downstream of Agra-Etawah ridge till its confluence with Ganges at Allahabad.

Topography of the Yamuna basin varies between steep topography in the Himalayan segment

to almost flat in the middle and lower segments (Figure 1.a.). The elevation in the Yamuna

River basin varies from about 6,320 m above mean sea level (msl) near Yamunotri Glacier to

around 100 m (above msl) near the confluence of Yamuna River with River Ganges at

Allahabad. The topography of the Yamuna basin can be classified into three groups, i.e., hilly

region (more than 600 m above msl); foot hills and Plateau region (300–600m); and plains

and valleys (100–300m above msl). On the basis of this topographic classification 11,700

km2 basin area can be classified as hilly, while remaining equally divided between plains and


Uttar Pradesh




plateau regions. In the Himalayan segment (upper Yamuna catchment), the drainage system

and the characteristics of landforms are closely interdependent and inter-related.

Figure 1(a): Topograhy of the Himalyan Catchment of Yamuna River

Figure 1 (b): Topography of the Yamuna River basin excluding the Himalayan catchment

The upper Yamuna catchment falls into three defined physiographic belts: the Lesser

Himalaya, the Siwalik, and the Doon Valley. On the other hand, catchments of the Chambal,

the Sind, the Betwa and the Ken experience undulating topography with ravines (Figure1.b.).

The objective of this research article is to determine the extension of Threshold Lower

Yamuna River Basin under the state of Uttar Pradesh and establish a new study area

considering the administrative boundary of the province.


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3. Methodology

The manual survey of the large study area like Large River basins is cumbersome, time

consuming and a team work so the present study has taken the help of latest techniques of

surveying and feature extraction like Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems.

The extracted feature classes were later visually interoperated using visual interpretation

technique. For this purpose different kind of satellite imageries were used including NASA’s

Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM 90M DEM version 4.0) tiles covering the study

area were incorporated.

The processing of all these RAW data was done by several popular GIS and Remote Sensing

Software including ArcMap, ENVI, and Global Mapper. Arc Hydrology tool under ArcMap

was very handy for fluvial geomorphic feature extraction. ENVI was used for the geometric

correction and mosaicing of the Satellite image tiles. Global Mapper was used for

topographic feature extraction. Beside this software Google Earth and ISRO Bhuvan were

also used for geo referencing and accuracy assessment purposes.

Table 1: Details of satellite data

Satellite Year Accuracy Tile

SRTM – DEM 90

M 2007

Elevation in 1m

pixel

precision, ±7m

vertical accuracy

srtm_51_06,

srtm_51_07,

srtm_51_08,

srtm_52_06,

srtm_52_07,

srtm_52_08,

srtm_53_06,

srtm_53_07,

srtm_53_08

SRTM Source: - http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/SELECTION/listImages.asp

Table 2: Details of software used in the study

Software Used Functions

ArcMap 10.1

Arc Hydrology tool for the geomorphic

feature extraction and Threshold river basin

generation, watershed extraction

ENVI 5.1 Georeferenced Mosaicing of SRTM DEM

Tiles of the study area

ISRO Bhuvan Georeferencing and Shape File creation of

the AOI

Global Mapper Topographic Feature Extraction

4. Results and discussion

The prime focus of this study was to determine the extent of Lower Yamuna River flood

basin under the boundary of Uttar Pradesh. Since there is a lack of discrete research on this

topic so a new approach on this topic was applied with the help of remotely sensed data.

Using NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topographic Missions digital elevation model (DEM) of 90 m

resolution of the basin, geomorphologic characteristics of the Yamuna basin has been


Uttar Pradesh




extracted from scratch using the ArcMap software. For this purpose all the eight SRTM DEM

tiles of satellite images mentioned in Table – 1 were processed and mosaiced in one single

Raster file which was then brought into ArcMap for further processing. The area of interest

(AOI) which is Yamuna River basin was identified using Google Earth and ISRO Bhuvan. A

shape file of AOI was created using polygon tool in ISRO Bhuvan. This shape file was then

overlaid on SRTM mosaiced Raster image and clipped using raster management tool in

ArcMap. The shape file for the clipped AOI is shown below in figure 3.

Figure 3: Clipped area of interest (AOI) of Yamuna River basin raster

After doing this Arc Hydrology tool was used for further processing. The sink filling

operation was done of the AOI using Fill tool. A sink is a cell with an undefined drainage

direction; no cells surrounding it are lower (Arc Hydrology manuals by ESRI). The pour point

is the boundary cell with the lowest elevation for the contributing area of a sink. If the sink

were filled with water, this is the point where water would pour out. The Sink tool can be

used to find the number of sinks and help identify their depth. Knowing the depth of the sinks

can help in determining an appropriate z-limit for Fill. After filling the sink, flow direction

(figure 3.) and flow accumulation (fig 2.2.) was acquired using Arc Hydrology tool. Both of

these were for further processing to get the Threshold Basin systems around the area of

interest (AOI).


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Figure 4: Flows of Direction of AOI Raster, Accumulation of AOI Raster

Having done all these Raster processing finally Threshold Basin System was generated using

Basin Tool under Arc Hydro. The output basin system which was generated is shown below

in figure 5 (a) and (b).

The extracted Yamuna basin was then converted into vector data using raster to polygon tool

and the AOI was saved as a shape file. The area of this shape file was then calculated in

ArcMAP with Projected Co ordinate System WGS – 84 UTM Zone 44N (Northern

Hemisphere). The total Threshold area under Yamuna River basin came out to be 420659

km2 and the perimeter 5235 km. The manuals from Yamuna action plan: phase – 2 under

national river conservation directorate ministry of environment and forest government of

India states that the area of Yamuna River basin is 366223 km2. The difference of area can be

caused by the use of different data sources. The present research has opted for the NASA’s

SRTM 90 Meter resolution Digital Elevation Model (Elevation in 1m pixel precision, ±

vertical accuracy) while the government manuals have used ISRO’s CARTODEM 1arc

second Digital Elevation Model. So there is variation in the generation of Threshold of

Yamuna River basin.


Uttar Pradesh




Figure 5(a): River Basin System AOI, (b) Extracted Yamuna River Basin from AOI

Districts of Lower Uttar Pradesh UnderYamuna River Basin: - After extracting the entire

Yamuna River basin, the demarcation of lower Uttar Pradesh districts lying under the basin

area was done. For this purpose georeferenced shape file of 13 Lower U.P districts (starting

from Etawah in West to Allahabad in East and Kanpur Dehat in North to Lalitpur in South)

were prepared using ISRO’s Bhuvan figure 6.

Figure 6 (a,b): Districts of Lower Uttar Pradesh, Extent of Yamuna River Basin in India


Uttar Pradesh




Now these georeferenced Lower U.P maps were overlaid on the extracted Yamuna basin

Raster (YRB) in ArcMap and the area under these districts were clipped (Figure 7a and

Figure 7b). The joint area of Yamuna river Basin under these districts was found to be 50157

km2.

Figure 7(a,b): Lower U.P District YRB (Vector), Lower U.P Districts under YRB (Raster)

Final cut for Acquiring the Lower Yamuna River Basin: -The clipped Raster image of Lower

U.P districts from the extracted DEM of Yamuna River basin was again processed using Arc

Hydrology Tool to get the fresh Threshold for the Lower Yamuna River basin. The same

process mentioned above was applied again starting from filling the sink, getting the flow

direction, flow accumulation and lastly getting the Threshold Basin area for the Lower

Yamuna Districts. The outcome of this processing is shown below in figure 8a.

This extract will be considered to be the final THRESHOLD AREA of Lower Yamuna River

basin under Uttar Pradesh (shown in dark black in figure 7b) and the present research for the

Flood Geomorphology of Lower Yamuna River Basin (LYRB) in Uttar Pradesh will be

solely done considering this Threshold area. The area and perimeter of the Lower Yamuna

River basin were calculated in ArcMAP using Projected Coordinate System WGS – 84 UTM

Zone 44N (Northern Hemisphere). They were found to be 33645 km2 and 1844 km

respectively. The longitudinal expansion for the study area was found to be between 78

80’98” west and 82 23’ 66” east longitudes, and the latitudinal expansion was found to

between 27 North and 25 South latitudes.


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Figure 8 (a): Extracted location of lower Yamuna river basin under Yamuna River basin

Figure 8 (b): Threshold Lower Yamuna River Basin under the Lower Uttar Pradesh

Districts


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Figure 8(c): Major LYRB and its Sub basins under the boundary of Uttar Pradesh

Figure 8 (d): Location of Threshold Lower Yamuna River Basin under Uttar Pradesh


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Figure 8 (f): Yamuna River basin catchments of lower Uttar Paresh

Figure 8 (g): Lower Yamuna basin


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5. Conclusion

With the help of data acquired from NASA’s SRTM mission the present study over the

Lower Yamuna River Basin has been done. For this purpose the whole Yamuna River Basin

was created from scratch under ArcMap. According to Remote sensing analyses the whole

Yamuna River Basin and its catchment area is expanded in seven states namely Uttrakhand,

Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi (NCT), Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

The total area under the Yamuna River Basin came just over four lakh square kilometers,

which is more than nearly fifty thousand square kilometers from the data acquired from the

government sources. This might be because the Threshold Basin Catchment area generation

has captured some areas of Ganges River Threshold. Our repeated attempt to review this

could not alter the result so finally we decided to go with our outcome of the result. The

objective of this study was to identify and delineate the Threshold Lower Yamuna River

Basin under the administrative boundary of Uttar Pradesh was successfully achieved. It was

found that the Threshold Lower Yamuna River Basin under Uttar Pradesh starts from 78° 48'

E in Etawah district and stretches to 82° 13' E at Allahabad district to the confluence with

Ganges. The latitudinal expansion is between 27° - 25 degree North. The catchment area of

Lower Yamuna River Basin is also extended up to Lalitpur disrtrict, but this part of the basin

does not have the Threshold to be considered under the main Lower Yamuna River

Catchment area. Because of its lower effectiveness it is not included in final “Threshold

Lower Yamuna River Basin under the administrative boundary of Uttar Pradesh”.

6. References

1. ArcMap Tutorials, Arc Hydrology Manuals from Environmental System research

Institute (ESRI).

2. Carbonneau, P. E. and Piegay, H., (2012), Fluvial Remote Sensing for Science and

Management, pp 271.

3. Hulse, D. and Gregory, S. (2004), Integrating resilience into floodplain restoration.

Journal of Urban Ecology, (7), pp 295–314.

4. Hulse, D., Branscomb, A., and Payne, S. (2004), Envisioning Alternatives: using

citizen guidance to map future land and water use. Ecological Applications, 14, pp

325–341.

5. Hulse, D.H. and Gregory, S.V. (2001), Alternative futures as an integrative

framework for riparian restoration of large rivers. Applying Ecological Principles to

Land Management. Springer-Verlag, New York, New York, pp 194–212

6. Lakshmikant, M., (2014), Bharat ki Rajvyavastha, 4th edition, pp 15.1 – 15.6.

7. Report of Central Water Commission of India, (2012), New Delhi.

8. Report on Ganga Basin, (2014), Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India,

p.17.

9. Yamuna Action Plan Report (2002), Government of India, New Delhi

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