Micro watershed Prioritization based on Morphometric and Land use Analysis Using Geomatics Techniques for natural resource management

Watershed management is an important part of natural resource management, especially in the context of watershed prioritization, which is very important in today's world. For prioritization of watersheds, morphometric and land use analysis is commonly applied using spatial techniques. The study area occupies the upper part of the Nayar and Bino basin having its steep side to the east and gentle part in the south. The eastern part delineated with an alpine pasture locally known as Bugyal is Dudhatoli ridge. The area shows altitudinal variation from 1180 mat Somaya in south-east to 3119 m a.s.l at Musa Ka Kotha with a relative relief of 1939 m. The area is completely rural and covers 584 km(2). About 3.51 % of the area falls under sparsely vegetated forest followed by waste land 10.22%, moderately vegetated forest 17.60%, agricultural and populated flat land 18.54 %, and thick forest 50.13%. The area was delineated into 33 sub-watersheds and different morphometric parameters have been determined and rank is assigned to each sub-watershed. Morphometric parameters include drainage density and frequency, drainage texture, bifurcation ratio, form factor, circularity ratio, and elongation ratio. Water resource management plan was derived and watershed prioritization was carried out by integrated land use/cover, soil and slope information with morphological parameters.