Data in Brief 20 (2018) 1353–1359

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Data in Brief

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/dib

Data Article

Prioritization of the micro-watersheds through

morphometric analysis in the Vasishta Sub Basin
of the Vellar River, Tamil Nadu using ASTER
Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data
R. Poongodi n, S. Venkateswaran
Hydrogeology Lab, Department of Geology, Periyar University, Salem 636011, India

a r t i c l e i n f o abstract

Article history: The dataset for this article includes morphological analysis of the
Received 15 April 2018 level to which groundwater potential of the Vasishta River, Salem
Received in revised form and Perambalur districts of Tamil Nadu. The method for the
20 August 2018
computation of morphometric parameters using data Digital Ele-
Accepted 29 August 2018
Available online 5 September 2018
vation Model (DEM) of the Vasishta River, is also prepared using
SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission) 90 m resolution data
Morphometric parameter linear, aerial and relief limits, such as a
bifurcation ratio (Rb), Drainage density (Dd) Stream Frequency (Fs)
Elongation ratio (Re), Length of overland flow (Lg), Relief ratio,
ruggedness number (Rn) and Slope (sb) of Vasishta Sub Basin
(VSB). The relief ratio indicates that the discharge should be con-
sidered high priority given to the following micro-watersheds
numbers 9,1,15,11 and 10. This data could be very useful to help
with sustainable groundwater planning in any similar basins.
& 2018 Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article
under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Specification table

Subject area Earth Science

More specific subject area Environmental Science, morphometry

n
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (R. Poongodi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2018.08.197
2352-3409/& 2018 Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
1354 R. Poongodi, S. Venkateswaran / Data in Brief 20 (2018) 1353–1359

Type of data Table and Figure

How data was Acquired USGS website http://www.usgs.gov/, ArcGIS 9.3 Software
Data format Raw, Digitized
Experimental factors The morphometric parameters of all the sub basin were calculated
using ArcGIS 9.3 Software.
Experimental features Determination of morphological factor that combines the Vasishta
river.
Data source location Vasista River Salem and Perambalur districts of Tamil Nadu State,
Data accessibility All the data are with this article.

Value of the data

The data could be used to decide the morphological characteristics of the Vasishta river area slope.

The data could be helpful for concerned authorities and policy makers in water measure

Management.

The data could be used in management, has groundwater potential.

1. Data

The data includes morphometric analysis of the Vasishta River Salem and Perambalur districts of
Tamil Nadu, The Survey of India toposheet (SOI) year 1973 and ASTER DEM data. Derived from
mathematical formula, see Table 1 (the characteristic investigated are in Tables 2 and 3).
The quantitative morphometric analysis was carried out in seventeen micro-watersheds of VSB
catchment using GIS technique for determining [1] the linear aspects, such as Stream order,

Table 1
Morphometric parameters and their mathematical expressions.

S.No Parameter Formula Previous

Work

Linear aspect
1. Area (A) Area of the watershed [2]
2. Perimeter (P) The perimeter is the total length [7]
of the watershed boundary.
3. Length (Lb) Maximum length of the [2]
watershed
4. Stream Order (Nu) Hierarchical rank [3]
5. Stream Length(Lu) Length of the stream [2]
6. Stream length ratio (Rl) Rl ¼ Lu / Lu  1 [4]
7. Mean Stream Length Ratio (Lsm) Lsm ¼ Lu/Nu [2]
8. Bifurcation ratio (Rb) Rb ¼ Nu/N (u þ 1) [5]
Areal aspect
P
9. Drainage density (Dd) Dd ¼ Lu=A [2]
P
10. Stream frequency (Fs) Fs ¼ Nu=A [2]
11. Elongation ratio (Re) Re ¼ 1.128 √A/L [5]
12. Length of overflow (Lg) Lg ¼ 1/2/2d [2]
13. Compactness coefficient (Cc) Cc þ 0.282P/√A0.5 [6]
Relief aspect
14. Basin relief (R) R ¼ H–h [5]
15. Ruggedness number (Rn) Rn¼ R  Dd [5]
Table 2

R. Poongodi, S. Venkateswaran / Data in Brief 20 (2018) 1353–1359

Morphometric parameter of the Vasishta Sub Basin.

Micro Watershed. No A (km2) P km L N N1 Lb (km) Rb Dd (Km/km2) Fs Dt Lg Rf Re Bs Rc Cc

1 84.36 51.39 693.01 428 343 12.08 3.54 8.21 5.07 8.33 4.11 0.58 0.60 1.73 0.40 1.58
2 84.36 46.95 393.02 203 159 12.38 3.31 4.66 2.41 4.32 2.33 0.55 0.60 1.82 0.48 1.44
3 122.78 59.56 623.75 348 256 23.15 2.76 5.08 2.83 5.84 2.54 0.23 0.73 4.36 0.43 1.52
4 144.53 70.75 692.89 380 284 20.99 3.32 4.79 2.63 5.37 2.40 0.33 0.79 3.05 0.36 1.66
5 125.15 58.02 394.09 156 111 21.91 2.63 3.15 1.25 2.69 1.57 0.26 0.74 3.84 0.47 1.46
6 133.59 63.82 618.11 321 241 23.09 2.76 4.63 2.40 5.03 2.31 0.25 0.76 3.99 0.41 1.56
7 136.45 67.41 412.63 189 142 29.04 3.09 3.02 1.39 2.80 1.51 0.16 0.77 6.18 0.38 1.63
8 107.77 61.09 236.04 116 92 25.86 3.38 2.19 1.08 1.90 1.10 0.16 0.68 6.21 0.36 1.66
9 58.7 37.28 493.32 313 248 15.23 3.26 8.40 5.33 8.40 4.20 0.25 0.50 3.95 0.53 1.37
10 88.42 41.72 543.61 316 230 13.06 3.12 6.15 3.57 7.57 3.07 0.52 0.62 1.93 0.64 1.25
11 97.71 48.1 663.29 396 307 15.88 3.35 6.79 4.05 8.23 3.39 0.39 0.65 2.58 0.53 1.37
12 83.03 41.28 498.65 275 211 11.31 3.09 6.01 3.31 6.66 3.00 0.65 0.60 1.54 0.61 1.28
13 74.57 42.72 445.99 248 195 12.8 3.08 5.98 3.33 5.81 2.99 0.46 0.57 2.20 0.51 1.40
14 32.27 32.97 205.38 115 89 11.8 2.09 6.36 3.56 3.49 3.18 0.23 0.37 4.31 0.37 1.64
15 36.26 32.9 309.63 185 144 11.74 2.97 8.54 5.10 5.62 4.27 0.26 0.40 3.80 0.42 1.54
16 40.95 33.77 252.48 139 107 11.12 2.30 6.17 3.39 4.12 3.08 0.33 0.42 3.02 0.45 1.49
17 319.88 198.3 946.03 426 319 65.21 2.59 2.96 1.33 2.15 1.48 0.08 1.18 13.29 0.10 3.13

1355
1356 R. Poongodi, S. Venkateswaran / Data in Brief 20 (2018) 1353–1359

Table 3
Micro Watersheds parameter of the VSB.

Micro watershed No of stream orders Total stream

No Numbers
1 st 2 nd 3 rd 4 th 5th 6th 7th
order order order order order order order

1 343 68 12 4 1 0 0 428
2 159 34 7 1 0 2 0 203
3 256 69 15 5 2 1 0 348
4 284 73 17 5 1 0 0 380
5 111 33 8 3 1 0 0 156
6 241 58 16 4 2 0 0 321
7 142 36 6 4 1 0 0 189
8 92 21 2 1 0 0 0 116
9 248 51 10 3 1 0 0 313
10 230 65 16 4 1 0 0 316
11 307 68 16 4 1 0 0 396
12 211 46 13 3 1 1 0 275
13 195 36 12 4 1 0 0 248
14 89 18 4 4 0 0 0 115
15 144 32 6 2 1 1 0 185
16 107 23 6 2 0 0 0 139
17 319 75 19 4 0 0 1 426

Fig. 1. The Base Map of the Vasishta Sub Basin.

 R. Poongodi, S. Venkateswaran / Data in Brief 20 (2018) 1353–1359 1357

Bifurcation ratio, Stream length and aerial aspects such as Stream order(U), Stream length (Lu), Mean
Stream length (Lsm), Stream length ratio (Rl), Bifurcation ratio (Rb),Length of overland flow (Lg)
drainage density (Dd), stream frequency (Fs), Compactness coefficient (Cc) form factor (Rf), circula-
tory ratio (Rc), and elongation ratio (Re), Relief ratio (Rh), Ruggedness Number. The prioritization
based on different morphometric factor is time-consuming.

2. Experimental design, methods and materials

Manual extraction of drainage network, assigning the stream order from a published Survey of
India (SOI) topographic map and from georeferenced satellite data for a large area is a time con-
suming and tedious exercise. To overcome this problem, automatic extraction techniques were used
for evaluating the morphometric factor of a basin. Extraction of River basin/watershed boundary and
extraction of drainage/stream the Vasistha River basin using ASTER DEM in conjunction with geo-
codes standard false colour composite remote sensing satellite data.
A multi criteria assessment was used to assimilate all the thematic layers. Individual themes and
their consistent groups allocated a knowledge base weightages given depending on their suitability to
grip groundwater and their weightages calculated. The process of visually interpreting digitally
enhanced imagery attempts to optimize the complementary abilities of the human mind and the
computer.

Fig. 2. The Priority Map of the Vasishta Sub Basin.

1358 R. Poongodi, S. Venkateswaran / Data in Brief 20 (2018) 1353–1359

Table 4
Prioritization value of the Vasishta Sub Basin.

Micro watershed No Rb Dd Fu T Lo Rf Bs Re Rc Cc Compound factor Prioritization Rank

1 1 3 3 2 3 16 2 7 6 12 5.5 2
2 5 12 12 11 12 15 3 8 12 6 9.6 10
3 12 10 10 6 10 4 14 13 9 9 9.7 11
4 4 11 11 9 11 10 8 17 2 15 9.8 12
5 14 14 16 15 14 8 10 14 11 7 12.3 17
6 13 13 13 10 13 6 12 15 7 11 11.3 13
7 8 15 14 14 15 2 15 16 5 13 11.7 15
8 2 17 17 17 17 3 16 12 3 16 12 16
9 6 2 1 1 2 7 11 5 14 3 5.2 1
10 7 7 5 4 7 14 4 10 17 1 7.6 5
11 3 4 4 3 4 12 6 11 15 4 6.6 4
12 9 8 9 5 8 17 1 9 16 2 8.4 6
13 10 9 8 7 9 13 5 6 13 5 8.5 8
14 17 5 6 13 5 5 13 2 4 14 8.4 7
15 11 1 2 8 1 9 9 3 8 10 6.2 3
16 16 6 7 12 6 11 7 4 10 8 8.7 9
17 15 16 15 16 16 1 17 1 1 17 11.5 14

2.1. Study area

The Vasistha River lies between 11° 240 0.34700 and 11° 530 26.49600 N latitudes and 78° 130 55.21100 E
to 78° 580 9.96900 E longitudes. The area was bounded by Toposheet numbers (58 I/5,6,7,9,10,11,12,14
and 15) survey of India. Having scale of 1:50000. Toposheet published the year 1973. The Vasistha
River study area lies in the Salem and Perambalur districts of Tamil Nadu comprises the part of Vellar
River. The main river Vasishta originates from the southern slope of the Kalrayan hills and flow
through kurchi, Belur, Pethanaickenpalayam, Attur, Pattuthurai, Thalaivasal, Aragalur, Sitheri, Villages
of Salem and Perambalur districts of Tamil Nadu.
It covers an area of 1770.78 km2, consisting of the Vasishta Nadi and Sweata Nadi, which drain two
parallel valleys running east and west in Attur taluk. Vasishta River runs for a distance of 73 km in
Salem, Perambalur and Cuddalore districts and drains into the Bay of Bengal. The climate of the
Vasistha River area is mainly sub-tropical climate with moderate humidity and temperature. The VSB
is underlaid by the Archaean crystalline rocks surrounded by denudation hills and structural hills.The
Base map of the VSB is given in the Fig. 1.

3. Compound factor and ranking

Compound factor is calculated by summing all the ranks of linear, aerial and relief parameter, the
shape parameter and then dividing by the number of parameter. From the group of these micro
watersheds, highest rank was assigned to the micro watershed having the lowest compound factor
and so on. Depending upon the value of compound factor, ranking to each micro watershed assigned
in the micro-watershed no. 9 is given as a rank 1 with least compound factor value at 5.2 and it is
followed by micro-watersheds no. 1 and 15 as second and third respectively. The values of compound
factor and respective rank of all micro- watersheds. The Priority value of the VSB is given in the Fig. 2
and Table 4.

Acknowledgements

The first author is highly thankful to DST-INSPIRE Fellowship, Government of India, Ministry of
Science and Technology, Department of Science and Technology for the financial support to carry out
this research work and also thankful to Professor and Head, Department of Geology, Periyar
 R. Poongodi, S. Venkateswaran / Data in Brief 20 (2018) 1353–1359 1359

University, Salem-11 for giving this opportunity. We also thank the anonymous reviewers and editors
for their constructive comments.

Transparency document. Supplementary material

Transparency data associated with this article can be found in the online version at http://dx.doi.
org/10.1016/j.dib.2018.08.197.

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