Digital Terrain Characterization of Nilona Micro Watershed of Darwha Block of Maharastra

Watershed characterization is the first step in the sustainable management of watershed resources. Morphometric analysis of a watershed using Digital Elevation Model (DEM) provides a quantitative description of the drainage system which is an important aspect of the characterization of watersheds. The study was conducted in Nilona micro-watershed covering an area of 1297.35 ha in Darwha tehsil of Yavatmal district, Maharashtra. The terrain attributes and drainage configuration were derived from the Cartosat-1 data, 10m resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM) using ArcGIS. Surface soil samples of 118 locations were collected from grid points located at regular interval of 325 m. The digital terrain analysis showed that slope varies from 0 to 45.9 percent, with a mean value of 4.5%. Most of the area of Nilona micro-watershed was classified as gentle sloping. Profile curvature varies from -5.1 to 4.6 m m-1, respectively indicating the coexistence of erosive as well as depositional landforms. Overall, the study documents the utility of site-specific modeling and geo-statistical interpolation based predictive mapping for watershed planning.