Identification of Hydrological Parameters of Mithi river, Mumbai, India using SRTM-DEM Dataset

The advent of satellite-based elevation dataset acquired by Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) made new and novel techniques possible to model hydrological process in midsize to large scale watersheds. This application is important in regions with poor photogrammetric coverage and land use in appropriate scale like Mumbai. Watershed parameters include slope, area, perimeters and mean elevation are derived from SRTM dataset. SRTM-DEM (digital elevation model) can be used for extracting watershed parameters with a reasonable degree of accuracy. In this study, drainage analysis will be performed on a terrain model for Mumbai area draining into Mithi River. The Arc Hydro tool and HecGeoHMS extension into ArcMap 10.1 are used to derive several data sets that collectivity describe the drainage patterns of the Mithi River catchment. Raster analysis is performed to generate data on flow direction, flow accumulation, stream definition, stream segmentation, and watershed delineation. These data are then used to develop a vector representation of catchments and drainage lines from selected points. The utility of Arc Hydro tools is used to develop attributes that can be useful in hydrologic modeling. The main data is the DEM with 3 arcs second to get as much accurate results as could. The obtained catchment of Mithi River is verified with Google earth. The obtained river and its tributaries are found to be matching with Google earth.