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Abstract
Himalayas are a great boon to India as they block the monsoon winds from the oceans, allowing the northern plain to receive
plenty of rainfall. The rivers Ganga and Brahmaputra are fed by the snow of the higher peaks, and these also protect from the
cold biting winds o North Asia. But it is this Himalayan range again, which is one of the biggest hotspots of natural disasters,
because they are still growing and young mountains and the changing climate of the globe has added to the frequency and extent
of such disasters. This paper involves the study of the Basin of Alakananda River, a tributary of the Ganges, so as to delineate the
flood prone zones of the area. Almost every year this region is affected by cloudbursts and consequent floods. The parameters
taken into consideration here are the slope, the river networks and the soil type of the area. River Tools has been used to extract
the stream networks of the river. Consequent analysis has been carried out in ArcGIS. The results of the analysis show that the
topology of the area is highly dangerous for any urbanization. Villages constructed on this region are very much vulnerable to
heavy floods due to the loose soil type present on the surface and the steep slope. The study identifies such highly vulnerable
regions in the Alakananda River Basin.
August 2001
Gouna Tehri
August 2001
Burhakedae-Agunda
(Balganga valley), Tehri
August 2002
16 July 2003
August 2004
July 2005
August 2007
Leh (Ladakh)
August 2010
10
Assiganga Uttarkashi
5 July 2012
11
August 2012
12
Bageshwar,
Almora
13
Kedarnath
Kapkot
near
19 Sept 2012
16-17
2013
June
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The Figure 9 below shows result of the village map overlayed on the stream networks map, on Arc GIS, which clearly shows how
the villages stand in the way of the stream flow, and hence face high risk of being affected by coudbursts.
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The study area has been classified by colours into Very Flat Land, Flat Land, Steep Land, Moderately Steep Land and Very Steep
Land. As can be seen, nearly 50% of the region show a trend of moderate and steep slope. Also more than 90% of the region has a
steep to very steep slope. It indicates that such a high gradient region is very much unsuitable for construction of any kind, be it
settlement or infrastructure. As it is such high slopes tend to be very unstable themselves, and with an infrastructure built on it,
would surely collapse.
The soil map of the area was also studied (Figure 11).
4. CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
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