Morphometric analysis for prioritizing sub-watersheds of Murredu River basin, Telangana State, India, using a geographical information system

Abstract The Murredu watershed in Telangana State was chosen for the morphometric and land use/land cover (LULC) analysis in this current study. Geographical information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) techniques can estimate the morphometric features and LULC analysis of a catchment. A total of fourteen sub-watersheds (SWs) were created from the watershed (SW 1 to SW 14), and sub-watersheds were prioritized based on morphometric and LULC features. Evaluation of various morphometric characteristics such as linear aspects, relief aspects, and aerial aspects has been carried out for every sub-watershed to prefer ranking. Four parameters were utilized for the LULC analysis to rank and prioritize sub-watersheds. The sub-watersheds were categorized into three groups as low, medium, and high, for soil and water conservation priority based on morphometric and LULC analysis. Using morphometric analysis, higher priorities have been assigned to SW 12 and SW 1, while using LULC analysis, higher priorities have been assigned to SW 9 and SW 11. SW 10 and SW 13 are the most common sub-watersheds that fall within the same priority while using morphometric and LULC analysis. The coefficient of regression results reveals that stream length and stream order, and also stream number and stream order, have a strong association. The deployment of soil and water conservation measures may be conducted in the high-priority sub-watersheds.