Prioritization of sub-watershed through morphometric analysis, Principal Component, and Land Use/Cover: A Case study of Cachar District, India

Soil and watershed management relies heavily on watershed prioritization. Examining flood risk assessment using morphometric parameters and land use/land cover (LULC) datasets analyzed using GIS, this study focuses on watershed prioritization in the Cachar district. To calculate linear, areal, and relief morphometric parameters and to demarcate sub-watersheds, a 30 m resolution ALOS DEM was used. To evaluate LULC parameters, we also used Esri LULC 2023, which is based on Sentinel-2 imagery with a resolution of 10 meters. To establish priorities, an integrated method based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used. When it comes to watershed prioritization, principal component analysis (PCA) is well-known for its adaptability and efficiency in choosing important correlated parameters. Priority was given to the sub-watershed that had the lowest compound value. Stream orders varied from 2 to 4, and the district was subdivided into 6 sub-watersheds. With a stream order of 4, sub-watershed 5 (SW_5) had the highest order, and sub-watershed 4 (SW_4) had the lowest.