Watershed Characteristics-

• Watershed geomorphology refers to the study of the characteristics,

configuration and evolution of land forms and properties; developing
physical characteristics of the watershed.
• It comprises of the characteristics of land surface as well as the
characteristics of the channels within the watershed/basin boundary.
The principal watershed characteristics are:
• Basin Area
• Basin Slope
• Basin Shape
• Basin Length
Basin shape is reflected by a number of watershed parameters as are given
below.
• Form Factor
• Shape Factor
• Circularity Ratio
• Elongation Ratio
• Compactness Coefficient
 Channel characteristics
• Along with the surface characteristics of a watershed, the channel
characteristics are important in transiting the runoff water from the
overland region to channels (streams) and also from the channel of
one order (primary) to the other higher order (e.g. river stream).
• The most common and important channel characteristics of the
watersheds are:
• Channel Order
• Channel Length
• Channel Slope
• Channel Profile
• Drainage Density
• The quantification of these physical and geomorphologic properties
of watershed/basin are important for estimating the watershed
hydrologic processes.
 Quantitative Characteristics of Watersheds
Physical characteristics
Watershed geomorphology refers to the physical
characteristics of the watershed.
Basin area, basin length, basin slope, and basin shape are
the physical characteristics of watersheds, significantly affecting
the characteristics of runoff and other hydrologic processes.
The quantification of these watershed/basin
characteristics can be done as discussed below.
Basin Area:
The area of watershed is also known as the drainage area
and it is the most important watershed characteristic for
hydrologic analysis. It reflects the volume of water that can be
generated from a rainfall.
Once the watershed has been delineated, its area can be
determined by approximate map methods, planimeter or GIS.
 Cont..
• Basin area is defined as the area contained within the vertical
projection of the drainage divide on a horizontal plane. Watershed
area is comprised of two sub-components; Stream areas and Inter-
basin areas.
• The inter-basin areas are the surface elements contributing flow
directly to streams of order higher than 1. Stream areas are those
areas that would constitute the area draining to a predetermined point
in the stream or outlet.
• For example, the stream area for first-order streams would be
delineated by measuring the drainage area for each first-order
channel. Horton (1945) inferred that mean drainage areas of
progressively higher orders might form a geometric sequence. This
characteristic was formulated as a law of drainage areas.
where
Aw = mean area of basins of order w,
A1 = mean area of first-order basins,
Ra = Stream Area Ratio and normally varies from 3 to 6
Ra = Aw/Aw-1
Basin Length:
• Length can be defined in more than one way (Fig. ) -
• The greatest straight-line distance between any two points on
the perimeter.
• The greatest distance between the outlet and any point on
the perimeter.
• The length of the main stream from its source (projected to
the perimeter) to the outlet.

Diagram Defining Basin Length.

• Conceptually the basin length is the distance traveled by the
surface drainage and sometimes more appropriately labeled as
hydrologic length. This length is generally used in computing a
time parameter, which is a measure of the travel time of water
through a watershed. The watershed length is therefore
measured along the principal flow path from the watershed
outlet to the basin boundary. Since the channel does not extend
up to the basin boundary, it is necessary to extend a line from
the end of the channel to the basin boundary. The measurement
follows a path where the greatest volume of water would
generally travel.
• Basin length, Lb, is the longest dimension of a basin parallel to its
principal drainage channel and Basin width can be measured in a
direction approximately perpendicular to the length
measurement. The relation between mainstream length and
drainage-basin area for small watershed is given below; where
Lb is in km and A in km2.

Lb = 1.312 A0.568
Basin Slope:
• Watershed/basin slope affects the momentum of runoff. It reflects
the rate of change of elevation with respect to distance along the
principal flow path. It is usually calculated as the elevation
difference between the endpoints of the main flow path divided by
the length.
• The elevation difference may not necessarily be the maximum
elevation difference within the watershed since the point of highest
elevation may occur along a side boundary of the watershed rather
than at the end of the principal flow path. If there is significant
variation in the slope along the main flow path, it may be preferable
to consider several sub-watersheds and estimate the slope of each.
• Basin slope has a profound effect on the velocity of overland flow,
watershed erosion potential, and local wind systems. Basin slope is
defined as
S = h/L
where
• h = fall in meters, and
• L = horizontal distance (length) over which the fall occurs.
Basin Shape:
• Basin shape is not usually used directly in hydrologic design methods;
however, parameters that reflect basin shape are used occasionally
and have a conceptual basis.
• Watersheds have an infinite variety of shapes, and the shape
supposedly reflects the way that runoff will “bunch up” at the outlet. A
circular watershed would result in runoff from various parts of the
watershed reaching the outlet at the same time.
• An elliptical watershed having the outlet at one end of the major axis
and having the same area as the circular watershed would cause the
runoff to be spread out over time, thus producing a smaller flood peak
than that of the circular watershed.
• A number of watershed parameters have been developed to reflect
basin shape. Form factor, shape factor, circularity ratio, elongation
ratio, and compactness coefficient are the typical parameters;
important in defining the shape of a watershed/basin; and are
discussed as below.
Channel Characteristics
• The basin geomorphology plays an important role in the transition
of water from the overland region to channels (streams) and also
from the channel of one order to the other. It is easily determined
by contour map and drainage map of the basin. Channel order,
channel length, channel slope, channel profile, and drainage density
are the most common channel characteristics, important in
estimating the watershed hydrological processes and are discussed
as below.
• Channel Order: The first-order streams are defined as those
channels that have no tributaries. The junction of two first-order
channels form a second-order channel. A third-order channel is
formed by the junction of two second-order channels. Thus, a
stream of any order has two or more tributaries of the previous
lower order.
• This scheme of stream ordering is referred to as the Horton-Strahler
ordering scheme (Fig.)
 The Horton-Strahler ordering scheme.

Nw = RbW-w
Or
log Nw = W log Rb - w log Rb = a – b
(a= W log Rb, b=w log Rb)
where
Nw = number of streams of order w; W = order of the watershed; and
Rb = Bifurcation Ratio varies between 3 and 5. This law is an expression of
topological phenomenon, and is a measure of drainage efficiency.
Bifurcation ratio is defined as the ratio between the number of
streams of a particular order to the number of streams of one higher order.
Rb = Nw/Nw+1
Channel Length:
• This refers to the length of channels of each order. The average length of
channels of each higher order increases as a geometric sequence. Thus,
the first-order channels are the shortest of all the channels and the length
increases geometrically as the order increases. This relation is called
Horton's law of channel lengths and can be formulated as:

where
Lw = total length of all channels of order w;
Nw = number of channels of order w;
Lw = mean channel length of order w;
L1 = mean length of the first-order streams;
RL = Stream-Length Ratio generally varies between 1.5 and 3.5
RL = Lw/Lw-1
Channel Slope:
The channel slope is determined as the elevation difference
between the endpoints of the main channel divided by the channel
length.
Channel Profile:
It includes the point of origin of the stream called the head, the
point of termination called the mouth, and a decreasing gradient of
the stream channel towards the mouth.
Drainage Density:
Drainage density (Dd) is the measure of closeness of drainage
spacing. It is the indication of drainage efficiency of overland flow
and the length of overland flow as well as the index of relative
proportions. It is defined as the length of drainage per unit area.
This term was first introduced by Horton (1932) and is expressed as
Dd = L/A
or
where
• L = Total length of all channels of all orders,
• A = Area;
• W = Basin order;
• Nw = No. of basin of different order.
• Horton (1945) recommended using one-half the reciprocal of the drainage
density to determine the average length of overland flow (L0) for the
entire drainage basin
L0 = 1/(2 Dd)
Where
• Dd basically describes the average distance between streams and
L0 approximates the average length of overland flow from the divides of
the stream channels.
Problem