Catchment Area Analysis of Tarafeni River based on Morphometric Characteristics, West Bengal, India

Dr. Lila Mahato, Sri Sanjit Mahanta

Abstract: River Basin is considered as the fundamental unit of fluvial geomorphology as they are well-defined areas, clearly separated from each other by drainage divides. The physical features of the basin with its erosional activities constitute the natural unit for the analysis of fluvial-eroded landscapes. A river basin always represents an area drain by a main stream and its tributaries It represents a set of networks, mostly tree-like, that consists of links and nodes. The networks are the combination of two aspects- topological, that describes the connectivity of the streams and geometrical, that includes shape, length, area, relief, etc. Tarafeni basin and its course form distinctive setting where the quantitative approach has been applied to understand the land forms in fluvial terrain. Entire watershed, the main channel with left and right banks and stream beds consist a typical riverine landscape of silt, sand, pebble, cobble, gravel, and boulders. Present study looks into the systematic and analytical study of the morphological characteristics of the catchment.

Keywords: River Network, morphometric analysis, Tarafeni river, quantitative approach