Modelling and hydro-morphometric analysis of sub-watershed. a case study of Mesta river southwestern Bulgaria

Abstract

In the present article some morphometric characteristics of small catchments (a total of 28) in the Mesta River were calculated and mapped. Some of the maps are obtained by calculation based on a vector model. For the detailed study, we used digital elevation model (DEM) for the surveyed territory and the application of a cartographic algebra in the GIS environment. As a result, GRID models have been obtained for some of the parameters. Different thematic maps (i.e. Surface runoff direction, Classification of the river network, Orientation of the catchments, Topographic factor of the slope of catchments, Kernel drainage density, Standard deviation of elevation, Basin-scale Ruggedness etc.) have been prepared by using the ArcGIS software. Authors have computed more than 20 morphometric parameters of all aspects. This study is very useful to implement different analysis of hydro-morphometric characteristics of catchments and also to solve various hydrological problems for watershed management

Keywords

• Hydro-morphometric analysis, Small catchments, DEM, GIS, Thematic mapping, Mesta River