ESTIMATION OF GEOMORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RAIGAD DISTRICT

Watershed is an ideal unit and accepted for planning, development and management of land and water resources. The quantitative analysis of any drainage system is important aspect for characterization of watersheds. Using a watershed as basic unit in morphometric analysis is most logical choice because all hydrologic and geomorphic processes occur within the watershed. The study focuses mainly on the major six watersheds with an area 6982.323 km2 of Raigad district. Various linear, areal and relief aspects of all the watersheds were calculated. This was achieved using GIS to provide digital data that can be manipulated for set of calculations. The analysis revealed that the total number as well as total length of stream segments of first order stream is maximum than that of other higher order streams. The total number of streams and their length decreases as the order increases. Horton's law of stream numbers and stream length also holds good. The bifurcation ratio varies from 1.675 to to 4.2 and the elongation ratio varying from 0.679 to 0.827, indicating that watersheds of elongated type have high relief and steep slopes.