Geomorphological Parameters: Are they Indicators for Installation of a Hydropower Site?

Assure power potential is a key factor to run the hydropower successfully. Power potential is mainly regulated by the head and flow available at site which is nothing but the capacity of a catchment, underlying the hydropower, to produce the runoff. The capacity of gauged catchments can be obtained by available flow records but for ungauged catchments it is still ambiguous. Hence this study has been initiated to determine the capacity of ungauged catchment to produce runoff through geomorphological study as prior investigation to install hydropower. An ungauged catchment of Solani River, a tributary of the Ganges from northern India hilly terrain, has been chosen for investigation. Further, the catchment has been divided in five sub catchments (sub catchments 1 to 5) to study the catchment capacity to produce runoff more precisely. Geographical Information System (GIS) has been used as a tool for geomorphological parameter estimation. The study reveals that the sub catchment 1 is of medium size among all five sub catchments but having maximum drainage density (1.11 km/km2) and maximum available relief ratio (0.023), which demonstrates better capacity to produce runoff among all. Hence sub catchment 1 can be considered as a site of interest for hydropower installation on Solani River as prior survey basis. Further, the relief value and slope value within the sub catchment 1 measured on main stream which used to explore the hydropower site.