Assessment and control of sediment flux in Rapti River
Student name: Ms Anshika Kandhway
Guide: Dr Shresth Tayal
Year of completion: 2016
Host Organisation: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), New Delhi
Abstract: Sediment yield is a natural process that quantifies the amount of sediment being produced and delivered to the river drainage basin outlet over a given period of time. In past decades the sediment yields from many river basins has aggravated due to anthropogenic activities and has led to increased catastrophic events such as floods. The Rapti river flows from mountains to plains and the basin is prone to flooding almost every year. The present study aims to assess the sediment supply from the Indian tarai and plain region to the Rapti river. Furthermore, the input parameters were correlated with the sediment yield value and assess the control measures which can be implemented to limit the excess sediment yield. In the present study parameters like rainfall, land use, topographic features, soil property and drainage area were used as input in the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), and integrating this model with the Geographic Information System (GIS) and Sediment delivery ratio model to estimate the average annual Sediment Yield from Rapti basin. The results indicated that average value of annual sediment yield for the study area is 0.79 ton/ ha/ yr. The input parameters like rainfall erosivity, length-slope and cover management factors were positively correlated with the sediment yield in the area. The limitation and future scope of the study is explained briefly.
Keywords: Sediment yield, USLE, Sediment delivery ratio, soil loss, GIS.
