Spatial Techniques for Soil Erosion Estimation by Rupesh Jayaram Patil

Author:Rupesh Jayaram Patil
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

3.1 Study Area and Data Availability

3.1.1 About Study Area

The Shakkar River rises in the Satpura range, east of the Chhindi village, Chhindwara district, Madhya Pradesh. The area lies between 22° 20′N to 23° 00′N latitudes and 78° 40′E to 79° 20′E longitudes with an elevation ranging from 314 to 1154 m above MSL (mean sea level). The watershed covers 2223 km2 of the total geographical area up to the gauging point. Tectonically, the area belongs to the Central Indian Tectonic Zone (CITZ) of the Satpura Mobile Belt. The Shakkar River, after covering first reaches on basalts, takes a turn from its westerly direction to north and cuts across the Satpura Mountain south of the Narmada River. Moving north and then northwesterly, it comes in the openness of the Narmada alluviums leaving the mountain in the backdrop. The alluvial plain of Narmada is of accretion type, and the Shakkar deposits much of its load here before joining the master river Narmada. The Narmada River, in fact, flows through a famous lineament known as the Son-Narmada lineament. The course of the Narmada is bounded by the Son-Narmada North Fault (SNNF) and Son-Narmada South Fault (SNSF) of the CITZ. The climate of the basin is dry except for the southwest monsoon season. During the southwest monsoon season, the relative humidity exceeds 87% (August month) although the rest of the year is drier. The driest part of the year is the summer season when the relative humidity is less than 33%. May is the driest month of the year. The normal maximum temperature during the month of May is 42.5 °C, and the minimum during the month of January is 8.2 °C. Soils are mainly clayey to loamy in texture with calcareous concretions invariably present (Patil et al. 2015). They are sticky and, due to shrinkage in summer, develop deep cracks. They predominate in montmorillonite and beidellite type of clays. In the other alluvial areas, mixed clay, black to brown and reddish brown soil, derived from sandstones and traps is observed which is sandy clay in nature with calcareous concretions. Near the banks of the river and at the confluence, light yellow to yellowish brown soils are noticed which were deposited in the recent past. These soils are clayey to silty in nature. The area receives rainfall via the southwest monsoon. The southwest monsoon starts from the middle of June and lasts until the end of September. October and middle of November constitute the post monsoon or retreating monsoon season. The average annual rainfall of the area is 1245 mm, whereas normal annual rainfall of the area is 1192.1 mm (Patil et al. 2015). The location of the study area is shown in Fig. 3.1.

Fig. 3.1Location map of the study area

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