Integrated Geospatial Analysis of the Tons River Watershed: Morphometry and LULC (2025)

This study presents an integrated geospatial analysis of the Tons River watershed, a significant tributary of the Yamuna located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The primary objectives were to delineate the watershed boundary, quantify its morphometric characteristics using linear, areal, and relief parameters, and map its Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) for the year 2025. A 30-meter resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Landsat 8 satellite imagery served as the primary datasets. All geospatial processing was conducted using ArcGIS Desktop with its Spatial Analyst extension. The results delineated an elongated, high-relief basin covering a total area of 692.85 sq. km. Key morphometric parameters, such as a Form Factor of 0.469 and an exceptionally high Relief Ratio of 47.704, combined with a convex hypsometric curve, characterize the watershed as geomorphologically young and tectonically active. The LULC analysis, performed using a supervised Maximum Likelihood Classification, shows a landscape overwhelmingly dominated by natural vegetation.