Determination of erosion surfaces and stages of evolution of Sangra drainage basin in Giridih district, Jharkhand, India

A major emphasis in geomorphology over the past several decades has been on the development of quantitative physiographic methods to describe the evolution and behavior of surface drainage networks. The quantitative analysis of morphometric parameters is found to be of immense utility in river basin evaluation. The influence of drainage morphometry is very significant in understanding the landform processes, soil physical properties and erosional characteristics. Drainage characteristics of many river basins and sub-basins in different parts of the globe have been studied using conventional methods. Modern statistical analysis and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques are now-a-day used for assessing various terrain and morphometric parameters of the drainage basins as they provide a flexible environment and a powerful tool for the manipulation and analysis of spatial information. In the present study, stream number, order, frequency, density and bifurcation ratio are derived and tabulated on the basis of areal and linear properties of drainage channels using GIS based on drainage lines of Sangra Drainage Basin of Giridih, Jharkhand as represented over the topographical map (R.F. 1:50,000). Area-altitudinal relationship also be assessed in this work to identify the erosional surfaces as well as stage of evolution. Besides, this paper is an attempt to analyze and establish relationship between the depended and independent variables through Principal component analysis to identify the major morphometric parameters which has a significant role in the erosional landforms of this drainage basin.