CHANNEL CHANGES OF AN ALLUVIAL RIVER USING REMOTE SENSING INPUTS IN A GIS ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

For Centuries, populations of the world have largely dependent on mighty rivers for their lively hood. Naturally, early civilizations were established and developed in and around the river valley But unfortunately, some rivers have been migrating and ultimately wiping out agricultural lands and cities in their path. The manner in which rivers change the form and pattern of their channel changes typically includes any change in river geometry with context to cross section, the pattern or network of drainage. Pla n form analysis helps in understanding the changes in channel pattern in both time and space. In the past, it has registered phenomenal changes over period of time and hence is the region that it has been chosen for this study. In the olden days, these river changes were appraised by conventional surveying or analytical approaches, which were slow tedious and time consuming. In order to have an effective use of this information, there is a need to improve the methodology and technology. The Remote Sensing and GIS Technology play a very important role in monitoring river changes and display all these changes in pictorial form. In the present study, detailed analysis of channel position, bankline position, channel shift, bankline shift, bed profile at all the cross-section have been carried out for the years 1966 to 1995. A GIS Based Model is developed to represent the channel position, bankline position, channel shift, bankline shift, bed profile at all the cross-section of different years . A single click of mouse button will display all these information's. . It also provides the facilities to any types of complex queries. Integrated use of Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing Data may save the time and cost of resource management and provide data base management system to link all types of information's.