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The Kalsa River basin is located between latitudes 29° 21' 18.3'' N and 29° 20' 14.25'' N and between longitudes 79° 39' 04.38'' E and 79° 40' 19.50'' E in the Kumaun Himalayan Range. The physiographic unit Kalsa River basin with Nainital district administrative area comprises around 145.61 sq. Km. Using S.O.I. toposheets and Carto- DEM, which serve as significant determinants in evaluating the landscape features of the basin, the main goal of the present study is to clarify the characteristics of the area's areal, linear, and relief features. It came out that the Kalsa basin contains a six-order river network with a dendritic structure, indicating various homogeneous geological characteristics, a moderate to high slope, and strong structural control. The ratio of bifurcations between several succeeding orders changes very little, but the mean ratio reveals strong structural control and lower rock permeability. The terrain appears to have steep slopes and lithology that have undergone complex deformation based on moderate to moderate course drainage density, drainage frequency, and high texture ratio. Geometric data show that the basin is less elongated, has moderate to very high relief, smaller infiltration capacity, and has a longer water flow duration. The southern portion of the basin has the absolute lowest relief (723 metres), while the top northern portion has the highest relief (2475 metres) and slopes from moderate to quite steep. As all morphometric markers and extant landforms show, the basin's topography is in its youth stages.

1. To analyse relief characteristics of the Kalsa River Basin.

2. To perform a morphometric assessment of the Kalsa River.

A.N. Strahler (1969) defines morphometry as "the science concerned with the precise measurement of landforms and the shape or geometry of any natural form, whether it be plant, animal, or relief feature." Morphometry is the study of the size, shape, and arrangement of the Earth's surface and its landforms through the lens of mathematics (J.I. Clarke, 1966). Morphometric analysis owes a great deal to the work of various researchers, including A.N. Stahler (1952, 1954, 1958, 1969), S.A. Schumm (1956, 1963), V.C. Miller (1953), etc. Indian geographers like Savindra Singh, Shiv Sagar Ojha, J.S. Rawat, R.K. Pandey, etc. made important contributions to the evolution of morphometric analysis.

Study Area

Kalsa River originates from the southern hills of the lesser Himalayan region in different tributaries, and it is known as Kalsa River after conferencing Tandi Gad and Ghat Gad tributaries nearby Padampuri village. After flowing southward, it eventually meets with the Gola River. Kalsa River watershed lies between latitude 29° 21' 18.3'' N to 29° 20' 14.25'' N latitude and 79° 39' 04.38'' E longitude to 79° 40' 19.50'' longitude E. The area extended over 145.98 km2 and N.N.W. to S.S.E. elongated in shape, having an aerial length of about 19.36 km from north to south and a width of approximately 14.89 km from east to west fall in Nainital district (Kumaun Region). The altitude of its Catchment extends from 723 to 2475m.The region is sandwiched between the Main boundary thrust (MBT) and South Almora thrust (S.A.T.) from south to north, and the Ramgarh thrust passes from the middle part of the Catchment. The hypsometric curve of all the catchments indicates the maturityof the early stage of the watershed. The area is characterised by sub-tropical climatic conditions, where maximum rainfall (3016.5 to 1147.2mm) is received during the monsoon period (July to October). June and January are generally the hottest (22.9°C) and coldest (5.2°C) months; winter is severe because of temperature declines and time below minus. Elevation plays a significant role in defining the climate variability of the region.

The study area is in theNainital south-central part of Kumaun lesser Himalayas. The region has complex geological and lithological formations ranging by several faults, the principal being the Ramgarh thrust. The district is bounded by PauriGarhwal in the north, Almora in the east, Champawat in the south, and Udham Singh Nagar in the west. The Kalsa River originates from the Lesser Himalaya along the eastern slopes of the Ramgarh range (GangnathDhar) at an altitude of 2475m. It flows in the southwest direction and meetsthe GaulaRiver at 723m above mean sea level;Kalsa flows parallel to the GaulaRiver from north to south and merges near Bhuria. It is the perennial river of the lesser Himalayan region.

Fig. 1. Location Map of Kalsa River Basin

Figure 2 Geology of KalsaRiver Basin

Geology

The KlasaRiver basin falls between the South AlmoraThrustnorth and Main Boundary Thrust in the south. The central tectonic unit of the study area is RamgarhThrust, and South Almora Thrust. The main rock types of different formations are carbonaceous schists, mica schist, quartzite, and schist. Intercalation of carbonaceous layers and thick schist bands is quite common. These rocks are highly jointed and fractured in the basin.

Material and methods

We have used the open series of topographical sheets at a scale of 1:50,000 from the Survey of India (SOI)  to determine the size of the basin and other spatial characteristics. Carto-DEM with a 30m spatial resolution was collected from the Bhuvan portal and was used for the hydrological study (drainage system), relief, slope aspects, and other topographical parameters. The zonal analysis was performed with a pixel size of 1km*1 km to evaluate relative relief, slope, drainage density, stream frequency, drainage texture, and other spatial morphometric parameters. ArcGIS 10.4 was used for data extraction, calibration, processing, and mapping. In regards to rock and formation structures

Figure: 3 Flow chart of Kalsa basin

Table 1:- Results of Morphometric Analysis in Kalsa Catchment.

1	Morphometric parameter	Method	Reference	Result
2	Basin Length (Lb) Kms	Arc GIS 9.3 Software	Schumm (1956)	19.36
3	Basin Area(A)Sq Km	Arc GIS 9.3 Software	Schumm (1956)	145.61
4	Basin Perimeter (P) Kms	Arc GIS 9.3 Software	Schumm (1956)	66.7
5	Form Factor Ratio (Rf)	Ff = A/Lb²	Horton (1952)	3.88
6	Elongation Ratio (Re)	Re =2/Lb* (A/ π) 0.5	Schumm (1956)	0.7
7	Texture Ratio (Rt)	Rt =N1 /P	Schumm (1956)
8	Circulatory Ratio (Rc)		Miller, 1953	0.411
9	Drainage Texture (Dt)	Dt =Nu/P	Horton (1952)	10.59
10	Stream Frequency	Fs = Nu /A	Horton (1952)	11.29
11	Drainage density	Dd = Lu/A	Horton (1952)	4.85

In the present study, the morphometric analysis uses different parameters: relative Relief, absolute Relief, stream order, stream length, bifurcation ratio, stream frequency,drainage density, drainage texture, form factor, and elongation ratio. The morphometric analysis is given in the following table.

A. Linear Aspects

Linear aspects measure linear drainage network characteristics such as stream order, bifurcation ratio, stream length, mean stream length, and stream length ratio. The linear characteristics of the Kalsa Basin are given below.

Stream Order (µ)

Stream ordering of river channels was first suggested by Gravilius (1914), but the systematic work of drainage order was performed by Horton (1932 and 1945) for the initial contribution to drainage ordering in geomorphology. Strahler slightly modifies it for the simplicity of drainage order (Strahler, 1964): 'The minor fingertip tributaries are designated as order first. Where two first-order channels join, a channel segment of order second is formed. Where two of order second join, a segment of order third is formed, and so forth. Stream order is the first step in the basin's morphometric analysis, which describes the drainage network's linear characteristics. Drainage ordering of Kalsa Basin has been applied through the Strahler method. The study areas have been found sixth order drainage basin e and description.

Streams Number (Nµ)

The count of stream channels in each order is known as stream number (Horton, 1945) and is credited with formulating a law of stream number, stating that the number of stream segments of each order from an inverse geometric sequence with the order number. Most drainage networks show a linear relationship with a slight deviation from a straight line. A total of 1645 streams were identified in the Kalsa Basin, and the number of streams in different orders of the Kalsa Basin is shown in Table 1. Generally, the Kalsa Basin have been observed mainly dendritic type drainage network, which indicates a lack of uniformity of landform features and have found structural and tectonic controlled topography in the basin

Figure 4: Stream order of Kalsa Basin 

Figure 5: Drainage System of Kalsa Basin

Bifurcation Ratio (Rb

The term bifurcation ratio is utilised for communicating the proportion of the number of streams of some random order to thenumber of streams in the next higherorder (Schumn, 1956).The bifurcation ratio characteristically ranges between 3.0 to 5.0 for the basin where the geologic structures do not distort the drainage pattern (Strahler, 1957, 1964).The bifurcation ratio's lower value is the watersheds' characteristics, which have suffered less structural disturbances (Strahler, 1964).In the present work, the bifurcation ratio of Kalsa Catchment ranges from 2.0 to 4.53 (Table 1).

Mean Bifurcation Ratio (Rbm)

The mean bifurcation ratio can be defined as the average bifurcation ratio of all orders. The Kalsabasin meanbifurcation ratio is 3.82 (Table 1), which has found the ideal condition of the drainage system in the whole basin that depicts geological controlled landform features.

Stream Length (Lµ)

The second law of stream length has been calculated by Horton (1945) and using a topographic sheet in the basin. It is measured the total stream length in a different order. The total stream length of the Kalsa Basin is 707.77 km. Generally, there is a decrease in stream length along with an increase in steam order.Out of the total stream length of Kalsa Basin, 453.72.02 km is constituted by the first order streams, while the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth order streams constituted 131.39 km, 53.61 km, 24.11 km, 13.46 km and 26.48 km respectively. Stream length is the basin's most significant hydrological Characteristic, which expresses the surface runoff characteristics and the nature of the topography.

Mean Stream Length (km) (Ḹµ)

Mean Stream length is the ratio between the total stream length and the total number of streams of each order stream network. The mean stream length is a dimensionless property, characterising the size aspects of the drainage network and its linked surface (Strahler 1957). The mean stream length describes the nature of the drainage network and its association with the surface basin. The mean stream length of the Kalsa basin ranges from 0.35 km to 26.48 km, which describes drainage characteristics and topographic features in the basin.

3.1.10 Stream Length Ratio (R.L.)

The stream length ratio is defined as the ratio of the mean stream length of a given order to the mean stream length of the next lower order and has an essential relationship with surface flow and discharge (Horton, 1945). The values of the stream length ratio show variation in slope and topographic development of the study area. The stream length of the Kalsa Basin varies from 0.0 to 3.93. It depicts the change in length ratio from one stream order to another stream order. The Kalsa Basin falls in an early mature stage, expressing various landform features that play the evolutionary stage and adjusting between endogeneticand exogenetic forces (Table 1).

Length of Overland Flow (Lg)

Length of overland flow refers to the runoff of the rain on the ground surface before it gets concentrated into definite stream channels, and it is approximately equal to the hall of reciprocal drainage density (Horton, 1945). In the present study, the length of the overland flow of the study area is 0.41, indicating a low surface runoff in the basin, and it further confirms the less susceptibility of the basin to both soil erosion and flooding (Table 1)

B-Areal Aspect

 Areal aspects are analyses mainly of drainage characteristics of the drainage basin's areal features and shape features, including stream frequency, drainage density, drainage texture, form factor, circulatory ratio, elongation ratio, constant channel maintenance, etc. It is an important parameter to understand the relationship between stream discharge and the area of the basin. Details explained of areal aspects are given below.

 Stream Frequency

Stream frequency is the total number of stream segments of all orders per unit area or the ratio of the total number of segments to the watershed area (Horton, 1945). Fu mainly depends on the area's lithological and physiographical surface conditions and precipitation. High stream frequency suggests the rocky surface, complex lithological conditions, and low permeability capacity, contributing to further erosion and vice versa. A high drainage density is seen in regions with weaker and impermeable subsurface soil, sparse vegetation and mountainous terrain. In the present analysis, the stream frequency ranged from 3 to 14 stream segments/km² (Fig. 6), and high stream segments exist in the northwestern part of the Catchment.

Figure 6: Stream frequency of Kalsa basin

Drainage density (D_d)

Drainage density is the total stream length per unit area of the drainage basin. The low drainage density indicates a highly permeable region (Horton, 1945). It is 4.85 for this basin and reflects a moderate permeable and easily erodible surface. It is mainly influenced by the resistance of the bed material to erosion and the infiltration capacity.

Drainage texture (Rt):

Horton (1945) defined drainage texture as "the total number of stream segments in any order around the basin's perimeter." The higher the responsible texture, the more runoff, dissection, and erosion occur. Therefore, Rt is the most important indicator for evaluating land resources.In the present work, the drainage texture of the Kalsa Catchment is 10.59, which indicates a coarse drainage texture(Fig. 8)

Figure 7: Drainage density of Kalsa basin

Figure 8: Drainage density of Kalsa basin

C Basin Geometry

The Geometry of Basins Extent, width, size, form, area, elongation, and circulation are all aspects of the basin that can be described using geometric metrics. Schumm (1956), the Klasa River (Nainital District) basin has a length of 19.36 kilometres along the axis most perpendicular to the river's main streamline. It is also essential to consider the basin area (A). Schumm (1956) found a fascinating correlation between the combined basin sizes and the cumulative stream lengths maintained by the contributing areas. The Basin area was calculated to be 145.61 square kilometres. Basin Perimeter (P) is the whole circumference of the outside edge of a basin. The size and shape of a basin can be inferred from its length along the major fault lines separating its many basins. As far as can be determined, it is 66.7 km. (Table: 1)

Circularity ratio (Rc)

According to Miller (1953), Rc is the proportion of a basin's area to its circular area's perimeter. Significant influences on Rc have been identified as stream frequency and length, land use/land cover, geological composition, Relief, slope, and climate in the basin (Altaf et al., 2013; Pramanik, 2017). The current study focused on the ratio of blood flow (Rc). The estimated circularity ratio of 0.411 for the Kalsa Catchment indicates the Catchment's elongated shape, mature terrain, and dendritic structure of a drainage network.

Form factor (Rf)

The form factor is the ratio of the square of the most extended length of the basin to the watershed area (Horton, 1945).The Kalsa Catchment is an extended circular shape with a low form factor (0.388). The figure indicates that the Kalsa Catchment is drained at a low form factor. The catchment form factor is less than 0.48 in the research area, which indicates that the basin is more elongated than usual due to a longer-than-average pick flow.

Elongation ratio (Re)

The elongation ratio determines the basin shape. The circular diameter of a basin is proportional to the overall length of the basin (Schumm, 1956). The elongation ratio (Re) typically falls within the range of 0.6-1 under most climatic and geological situations. If the value is 1, then the drainage basin is round, according to research by Singh and Singh (1997 ). According to the elongation ratio, the Kalsa catchment is elongated, with a value of 0.7.

D - Relief Aspects

The linear and areal landscapes are examples of the two-dimensional view of a plan. The third dimension might be thought of as relief. Exhibit results describe relative and absolute relief, slope, slope aspect, etc.

Hypsometric Analysis

The hypsometric curve, which depicts the relationship between area and height, demonstrates that the zone grows larger at higher elevations (Strahler, 1952). The Kalsa basin is mature, as shown by an estimated HI of 0.54 (Fig. 9). In areas where disintegration and land sliding are common, the basin is especially vulnerable due to its high susceptibility to surface spillage, soil disintegration disaster, and land sliding.TheKalsa basin has reached an early mature stage. Surface runoff, problems with soil disintegration, and land sliding pose an exceptionally high risk to specific areas inside the basin.

Figure 9: Hypsometric curve of Kalsa basin

Absolute Relief (Ra)

Absolute relief is the ratio of a region's actual elevation above sea level to its mean elevation. The maximum height of every area can be roughly estimated. The Kalsa basin's absolute relief is divided into four physiographic Zones, with (1600meter), (1601- 1800 metre), (1801- 2000 metre), and (>2000 metre) accounting for 25.2 per cent, 19.93 percent, 27.25 percent, and 27.54 percent of the basin's total area, respectively. About 27.54 percent of the planet is covered by terrain with absolute relief of more than 2,000 metres. Find the least land between 1601 and 1800 metres in absolute relief (19.93 percent of the total).(Fig.10).

Relative Relief (Rh)

Rh is the difference between an area unit's lowest and highest points. Rh may also reflect the relief attribute when the sea level is ignored (Singh 1992). Local aid has another name. The research area's highest Rh is located in the top northern section,). A breakdown of the KalsaRiver basin's relative relief into its four relief class categories (figure 11) reveals that the catchment area with Rh frequency is concentrated in the moderate relative relief class of 201-300m and the very high local relief class >400m only contains the least amount of land, at 2.73 percent. Relative reliefs of over 200 metres are prevalent in the Catchment, as seen in Fig.11.

Figure 10:Absolute relief of the Kalsa basin

Figure 11:Relative relief of Kalsa basin

Slope Analysis(Sa)

A slope is a region of land that forms a sharp angle with the surrounding flat terrain.Slope units are used in geomorphology to describe the landscape.The slope is the angle, measured in degrees, between a horizontal line and the vertical distance between a hilltop and a valley floor.Maximum valley side slope, measured at intervals along valley walls at the steepest part of the contour orthogonal extending from divides to an adjacent stream channel, is how Strahler (1964) described "the inclination or gradients of the surface of a basin."TheKalsa Catchment is divided into 1km by 1km grids, each of which describes a different slope category: moderate (15 degrees), moderately steep (15.01-25 degrees), steep (25.01-30 degrees), and very steep (>30 degrees) (Fig.12). The Catchment is moderately dissected, and a steep slope covers a large area.

Slope Aspect

The slope aspects map shows the relative position of slope facets for the direction of the sun angle. Generally, it refers to (Direction of Slope) to the horizontal direction a slope faces.KalsaRiver flows from north to south direction.Kalsa Catchment is divided into nine slope aspects. The slope aspect suggests that which area impact is a denudational procedure.The settlement location depends upon the slope aspect condition.The slope aspect of the KalsaCatchment covers the entire direction of the area, and the settlement is situated northern, southwest, and western aspects of the Catchment.The dense forest of the study area is located northeast, southwest, and northwest, and the eastern aspect area is open forest and shrub-type vegetation of the Catchment (Fig. 13).

Figure 12:Slope map of Kalsa basin

Figure 13: Slope aspect map of Kalsa basin

Dissection Index (Di)

The dissection index refers to the degree of dissection or vertical erosion and the stage of landform development in any given watershed (Singh, S. and Dubey, A., 1994).It is the assessment of the vertical erosion of landforms. The dissection index is the ratio of relative Relief and absolute Relief of the basin, which illustrates ‗0 'is the absence of dissection and ‗1 'is an extreme dissection of the landforms.In the present work, the dissection index is shown in (Fig.14)

Figure 14:Dissection index of Kalsa basin

Morphometric evaluation of the drainage system is a prerequisite to any hydrological observation. Thus, the dedication to streaming network behaviour and its interrelation with every difference is vital in many water assets research. Remote sensing data and Arc-GIS techniques have been proven to be effective in drainage delineation. Their updation at the side of previous datasets brings various pictures enabling geomorphologists to infer a concrete conclusion about the drainage basin. In the existing paper, a morphometric analysis of the Kalsa River Catchment, based on numerous drainage parameters using satellite data and G.I.S. tools for drainage examination, has been described. The morphometric examination uses the dimension of the Catchment's linear, aerial, and Relief aspects. It has been found sixth order drainage network of Kalsa Catchment. The bifurcation ratio is 2.0 to 4.53 of the fifth and first-order drainage network, which indicates that the geological structure is the principal function of the drainage system in the Catchment. In this way, it is seen that there is a decrease in stream frequency as the stream order increases and vice versa. The variation in stream length ratio is probably because of differences in slope/gradients and topographic situations of the place. The slope position and topographical change of the Catchment are reflected in the range of values for the mean stream length, from 0.35 to 6.73. This area is high altitudinal zoning of the Lesser Himalaya region, which reveals high relative Relief and steep slope characteristics of the Catchment. The elongation ratio is 0.7, which indicates that the central part of the Catchment is moderate relief. The length of overland flow is 0.41, early mature topography of the Catchment. Two types of forests, tropical and temperate, generate different landforms. Generally, the results show that Catchment is highly vulnerable to hazards and rich water properties. Thus, the whole Catchment has found a variety of climatic characteristics,i.e., the lower part of the Catchment was identified as tropical climatic, and the upper part was identified as temperate climatic. Due to climatic variation, rainfall and snowfall (winter season) are found. The hydrological behaviour of the Catchment observed different rates of erosion in different topography. Because of this, different landforms have been developed in this Catchment, such as scarp, v-shaped, spur, river terraces, riffle, etc.

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