Analysis of Watersheds in Gandaki Province, Nepal Using QGIS
Analysis of Watersheds in Gandaki Province, Nepal Using QGIS
1, July 2019
                                                            Nepal Engineers' Association, Gandaki Province
                                                                                  ISSN : 2676-1416 (Print)
                                                                                                Pp.:  16-28
Abstract
Gandaki province has the good potentiality of hydro-electricity generation with existing twenty-
nine hydro-electricity projects. Since the Province is rich in water resources, analysis of watersheds
needs to be done for management, planning and identification of water as well as natural resources.
GIS offers integration of spatial and no spatial data to understand and analyze the watershed
processes and helps in drawing a plan for integrated watershed development and management. The
Digital Elevation Model (DEM) available on the NASA-Earth data has been taken as a primary data
for morphometric analysis of watershed in Gandaki Province using QGIS. Delineation of watershed
was conducted from a DEM by computing the flow direction and using it in the Watershed tool.
Necessary fill sink correction was made before proceeding to delineation. A raster representing
the direction of flow was created using Flow Direction tool to determine contributing area. Flow
accumulation raster was created from flow direction raster using Flow Accumulation Tool. A point-
based method has been used to delineate watershed for each selected point. The selected point may
be an outlet, a gauge station or a dam. The annual rainfall data from ground meteorological stations
has been used in QGIS to generate rainfall map for the study of rainfall pattern in the province
and watersheds using IDW Interpolation method. The present research work provides some major
morphometric watershed parameters like drainage area, flow length, slope, drainage density and
rainfall patterns for watersheds in Gandaki Province. Furthermore, the parameters were compared
among the watersheds in Kaski. The results of this study can be used as a reference for proposing
infrastructures in those watersheds and it can also be used for making policy by local government
authorities related to Energy, Water Resources, Irrigation, and Infrastructures.
Keywords: Hydrologic analysis; Hydrologic modeling; Watershed parameters; Morphometric
parameters; Phewa watershed.
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1. Introduction                                     (2018) performed hydrologic analysis for the
Gandaki province has the good potentiality of       purpose of designing storm water drainage in the
hydro-electricity generation with existing 29       area of Lamachaur, Pokhara, Nepal. They found
hydro-electricity projects (Sahayogee, n.d.).       the existing drainage system of Lamachaur area
Number of lakes and perennial rivers can be         is inadequate to safely discharge the surface
attributed to the richness in water resources in    water based on hydrologic analysis. Since the
this province. The province is drained by the       Gandaki Province is rich in water resources,
tributaries of the river Gandaki (Kali Gandaki,     the comprehensive hydrological study of
Budhi Gandaki, Seti Gandaki, Marshyangdi,           watersheds yet to be done by local government
Madi, Daraundi, and Seti). This province is         and authorities related to water resource for
rich in lakes as well with Phewa, Rupa, Begnas,     management, planning and identification of
Khaste, Dipang, and Tilicho lakes to name a         water as well as natural resources. Basnet et
few. According to the Statistic Office Kaski,       al. (2018) conducted comparative hydrological
Central Bureau Statistics, the Gandaki Province     study of common approaches used for calculation
covers an area of 21,773 km2 which is about         of design discharge. They concluded that the
14.66% of the total area of Nepal. The Province     Catchment Area Ratio method found to be
is extending between 27°-20' N to 29°-20' N         suitable one for estimating the design discharge
latitude and 82°-52' E to 85°-12' E longitude. In   of Padhu Khola, Kaski, Nepal. The present
terms of terrain, the province is spread over the   research performed hydrologic modeling to
Himalayan, Hilly and Terai regions of Nepal;        study watersheds within Gandaki Province.
5,919 km2 (26.8%) of the area falls under           The major focus was given to Kaski District
the Himalayan region, 14,604 km2 (67.2%)            and Phewa Watershed (see Figure 1 and Figure
of the area falls under the Hilly region, and       2). The Phewa Lake Watershed (28°11′39″ to
1,310 km2 (6%) of the area falls under              28°17′25″ N and 83°47′51″ to 83°59′17″ E) is
the Terai region (Province Profile, Province        a micro region of the hill of Nepal. It lies in the
No. 4). Hydrological studies are important          west of Pokhara Metropolitan City (Former
and necessary for water and environmental           Pokhara Sub-metropolitan City) covering about
resources management. Demands from society          122.53 km2 area with the elevation from the sea
on the predictive capabilities of such study        level between 793 m and 2508.81 m. Some 5.75
and analysis of hydrological parameters are         km2 area of Phewa Lake watershed realm lies in
becoming higher and higher, leading to the need     Pokhara City and occupies 38% population of
of enhancing existing research theories and         the city (Aryal, 2007).
even on developing new theories. For example,
hydrological analysis is critical to design road
side drains for better management of storm water
in major cities of Nepal. Basnet and Neupane
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                                                                and      sub-basins      and     determine
                                                                morphometric parameters: (a) Drainage
                                                                Area, (b) Watershed Length, (c) Watershed
                                                                Slope, (d) Flow Length, (e) Drainage
                                                                Density, and (f) Watershed Shape Factors
                                                                using QGIS.
                                                            c)	To use rainfall data from TRMM and
                                                                ground meteorological stations to generate
                                                                rainfall map of sub-basins.
     Figure 1: Map of Gandaki Province                    Recently, Nepal has gone into federal system
      (Source: Provincial Government, Gandaki Province)   and there are challenges for every province to
                                                          manage administrative system first, secondly
                                                          the management of water resource in order
                                                          to prioritize the major concern. In Gandaki
                                                          Province where there are numbers of lakes
                                                          and water basins exist, it is very important to
                                                          manage these water resources and watersheds
                                                          for proper development of the province and for
                                                          predicting and managing future water demand.
                                                          One of the major tasks for this would be analysis
                                                          of watersheds in Gandaki Province. Watershed
    Figure 2: Landsat (MSS, OLI and TM)                   analysis provides not only their boundaries
 image of Phewa watershed (Source: United                 but also hydrological parameters useful for
 States Geological Survey web portal: http://             management programs like decision making.
           earthexplorer.usgs.gov)                        It helps in flood prediction modeling and snow
                                                          melt runoff models and provides necessary
The main goal of the present research work is
                                                          inputs for hydrological modeling. Being
to determine morphometric parameters of the
                                                          concentrated on the analysis of watersheds in
watersheds in Gandaki Province of Nepal using
                                                          Gandaki Province, especially near Kaski area,
QGIS. Specifically, the research work intends
                                                          this research work has various significances
to achieve the following objectives:
                                                          (e.g., water management programs, water
 a)	 To acquire and generate GIS data layers              resource identification and management, and
     for study area. These layers include                 flood prediction and control).
     Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), digital
                                                          As the purpose of this study was to generate
     raster graphic maps (DRGs), National,
                                                          watershed      parameters/characteristics     for
     Provincial and District boundaries.
                                                          control point in Gandaki Province in basic level,
 b)	 To use DEM to delineate the watersheds
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morphometric characteristics of watersheds          2.2	 Watershed Delineation Steps
are only the output of this study in general.       Authors proceed through a series of steps as
Detail study needs advanced level analysis          shown in Figure 3 while delineating watersheds
considering discharge, interbrain flow, etc. This   or defining stream networks.
study uses 30 m DEM for analysis of sub-basins
in the Gandaki Province, the DEM also have Z
accuracies generally between 10 m and 25 m
root mean square error (RMSE).
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                                                                   management and planning should be the top
                                                                   concern of the Gandaki Province Government
                                                                   (Officially, Government of Gandaki Pradesh).
                                                                   Watershed analysis can be one of the key ideas
                                                                   for the management and planning of water and
                                                                   natural resources. Watersheds parameters can be
                                                                   used as a reference for proposing infrastructures
                                                                   in those watersheds and it can also be used for
                                                                   making policy by local government authorities
                  (a) Result from this study                       related   to Energy,
                                                                       (b) From          Water Resources, Irrigation,
                                                                                Subedi (2013)
                                                                   and Infrastructures.
                                                                   Provincial boundary of Nepal, officially the
                                                                   Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, can
                                                                   be seen in Figure 8. Gandaki Province is one
                                                                   of the seven provinces of Nepal. This layer
                                                                   was acquired from Geo Portal Nepal official
                                                                   website and necessary processing was done
                                                                   by using QGIS Desktop 2.18 program for the
                                                                   presentation. Figure 9 shows the major rivers
                                                                   of Nepal and Hydrological Stations; the rivers
                  (b) from Subedi (2013)
                                                                   were delineated from ASTER Global DEM
     Figure 7: Comparison of Kaski District
                                                                   available freely upon request on NASA-Earth
          Streams with previous study
                                                                   data with spatial resolution of 30m x 30m. The
 Table 1: Comparison of major parameters for                       location of hydrological Station was taken from
    present research and previous studies                          Department of Hydrology and Meteorology
S.   Parameters   This Study
                               Subedi     Aryal
                                                   Remarks         (DHM) official website. These station locations
N.                             (2013)     (2007)
     Area
                                                                   were taken as a reference to choose outlets of
1.                121.61 km2 119.89 km2 122.53 km2 Comparable
     derived                                                       sub-basins. Sub-basins in Gandaki Province that
2.   Shape        As shown     As shown   -        Comparable
                                                                   are delineated using ASTER Global DEM are
     Stream
3.
     Network
                  As shown     As shown   -        Comparable      presented in Figure 10. From the analysis it was
4.   DEM (m.)
                  12.5 m x     30.0 m x
                                          -
                                                   Used fine DEM   found that there are nine numbers of sub-basins
                  12.5 m       30.0 m              in this study
                  Phewa
                                                                   in Gandaki Province, where only two of them
5.   Outlet                    -          -        Same
                  Dam                                              completely lie within the province boundary and
6.   Software     QGIS         Arc GIS    -        -
                                                                   they are East Seti Sub-Basin and Marshyangdi
3.2 Watershed Analysis of Gandaki Province                         Sub-Basin. The rest seven sub-basins are
Being rich in water resources, water                               partially lying in the Gandaki Province. The
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majority of area is occupied by Kali Gandaki       to prepare rainfall map which helps to study
Sub-Basin with 11839.8 km2 drainage area and       current trends of rainfall in the province.
minimum area is occupied by East Seti Sub-
Basin with 2959.02 km2 drainage area. East                                                                                Kaski District
                                                                                                                        (Area: 2,017 km2)
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                       Figure 10: Sub-basins of Gandaki Province
                                            Table 2 contd.: Morphometric parameters of sub-basins
                                                                                                     WS Shape                  Annual
                                                                    Elevation
                                                                                Watershed Slope
Factor Precipitation
                                                                                                                Elongation
                                                                                                  Circularity
                                            S. N.Sub Basins
                                                                    High Low
(mm.)
                                                                                                                                     (mm.)
                                                                    (m.) (m.)
                                                                                                  Ratio
                                                                                                                Ratio
                                                                                                                             Max.
                                                                                                                                     Min.
                                                 Kali Gandaki
                                             1                      5020 180 0.0123 2.232 0.312 4990                                  195
                                                 Sub-Basin
                                                 Marshyangdi
                                             2                      4333 261 0.0244 1.806 0.469 3550                                  330
                                                 Sub-Basin
                                                 East Seti Sub-
                                             3                      4631 219 0.0307 1.714 0.427 4950 1450
                                                 Basin
 Figure 11: Annual Precipitation of Nepal    4
                                                 Thuli Bheri Sub-
                                                                    5368 226 0.0156 2.120 0.400 2750                                  340
                                                 Basin
                                                 East Rapti Sub-
                                             5                      2068 124 0.0087 2.072 0.348 2810 1935
                                                 Basin
                                                 West Rapti Sub-
                                             6                      2492 125 0.0078 2.286 0.293 2700 1335
                                                 Basin
                                                 Tinahu Sub-
                                             7                      781 82 0.0076 1.870 0.834 2585 1705
                                                 Basin
                                                 Budhi Gandaki
                                             8                      5560 326 0.0411 1.950 0.533 3175                                  950
                                                 Sub-Basin
                                                 Trishuli Sub-
                                             9                      5350 180 0.0236 2.350 0.330 3175                                  995
                                                 Basin
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3.3 Watershed Analysis in Kaski District             Annapurna Range in the northern side is always
Kaski, a part of Gandaki Province is one of the      full of snow. The beautiful scenery of northern
seventy-seven districts of Nepal. Kaski district     mountains, gorge of Seti River, Davis Falls,
with Pokhara as its district headquarter, covers     natural caves, Fewa Lake, and Begnas Lake
2,017 km2 area. The altitude of Kaski district       are the main attractions. Major river networks
ranges from 450 m the lowest land to 8,091 m         in Kaski district are shown in Figure 13. Seti,
the highest point in the Himalaya range. Kaski       Madi, Modi, and Mardi Khola are major rivers
district covers parts of the Annapurna mountain      that flow from the upper Himalayas range and
range. The district is full of rivers such as Seti   contribute most of water demand of people and
Gandaki, Modi, and Madi along with other             infrastructure projects like hydropower and
rivulets. The district headquarters Pokhara lies     irrigation. A DEM of 12.5 m spatial resolution
about 750 m above the sea level and is one of        has been taken from Alaska Satellite Facility.
the best tourist destinations in the world. The      The stream networks (rivers) were generated
district is famous for the Himalayan range           from flow accumulation raster, where threshold
with about eleven Himalayas with altitude            was taken as 25 km2.
greater than 7000 m. The famous Peaks include
Machhapuchhre (Virgin Peak – 6993 m). The
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                            Figure 13: Major Rivers in Kaski District
Watersheds and stream network delineated            Table 3: Watersheds in Kaski District: Fact and
within Kaski district can be visualized in Figure                      Figures
14. This layer was derived from point-based          S.
                                                          Watersheds
                                                                                     Area
                                                                                             % Area   Major Stream
                                                     N.                             (Km2)
watershed delineation method. The outlet points           South Annapurna
                                                    1.                            160.109    8.76%    Modi Khola
                                                          Glacier Watershed
(point of interest) ware manually allocated to            Machhapuchhre Glacier
                                                    2.                            117.439    6.43%    Seti River
the stream location with higher accumulation              Watershed
                                                          Madme Khola                                 Madme Khola
                                                    3.                            162.675    8.90%
and lowest elevation. Flow direction raster and           Watershed                                   Madi Khola
                                                          Upper Modi Khola
snap pour point raster - which were derived         4.
                                                          Watershed
                                                                                  173.339    9.48%    Modi Khola
                                                          Upper Seti River
from flow accumulation raster and point of          5.
                                                          Watershed
                                                                                  135.883    7.43%    Seti River
                                                          Upper Madi Khola
interests - were used to delineate watersheds.      6.                            188.503    10.31%   Madi Khola
                                                          Watershed
Table 3 show name, area and major stream of the     7.
                                                          Lower Modi Khola
                                                                                  66.109     3.62%    Modi Khola
                                                          Watershed
thirteen watersheds derived from the analysis.      8.    Mardi Khola Watershed   233.693    12.79%
                                                                                                      Mardi Khola
                                                                                                      Seti River
Study shows that the Seti-Bijaypur Watershed        9.
                                                          Lower Madi Khola
                                                                                  130.051    7.12%    Madi Khola
                                                          Watershed
has higher drainage area of 267.378 km2 and         10.   Phewa Lake Watershed    121.610    6.65%    Harpan Khola
                                                                                                      Dovan Khola
Rupa Lake Watershed has lowest drainage area        11.   Rupa Lake Watershed     31.781     1.74%
                                                                                                      Tabesi Khola
                                                    12.   Begnas Lake Watershed   39.239     2.15%    Khudi Khola
of 31.781 km2.                                                                                        Seti River
                                                    13.   Seti-Bijaypur Watershed 267.378    14.63%
                                                                                                      Bijaypur Khola
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