WATERSHED DELINEATION AND FLOW ACCUMULATION CALCULATION USING SHUTTLE RADAR TOPOGRAPHIC MISSION (SRTM) DATA

Parmita Bose*, S.N. Mohapatra¹ and Padmini Pani²

1. Centre of Remote Sensing and GIS, SOS in Earth Science, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, (INDIA)
2. Centre for the Study of Regional Development, JNU, New Delhi, (INDIA)

*E-mail : parmita_bose@yahoo.com

Received on August 02, 2009 and accepted on December 08, 2009

ABSTRACT

Watershed delineation is very essential for the understanding of geo-environmental condition of an area. Availability of an authentic drainage and watershed map is the fore most requirements for a systematic hydrological study. In the present study the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) data has been used for the flow accumulation calculation and watershed basin delineation. The potential drainage were developed based on the 3 arc second Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of SRTM data. The elevation grids were first filled to create depression less DEM. Then the flow accumulation has been calculated and the stream channels were delineated. Watershed basin has been delineated on the basis of derived stream channels. The results were found very encouraging when it is compared with the drainage basin derived from Survey of India Topographic Sheet. The present study demonstrates the utility of SRTM data for watershed delineation and the flow accumulation studies. Conventional methods have their own limitations hence new emerging technology should be adopted to obtain better result.

Keywords : SRTM, DEM, Flow Direction, Flow accumulation, Watershed