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Urban Water Journal

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Remote sensing and GIS-based assessment of

urbanisation and degradation of watershed health
a b c d
M. K. Jat , D. Khare , P. K. Garg & V. Shankar
a
Civil Engineering Department , MNIT , Jaipur, India
b
Water Resources Development & Management , IIT Roorkee, India ,
c
Civil Engineering Department , IIT Roorkee , India
d
Civil Engineering Department , NIT Hamirpur , India
Published online: 23 Jul 2009.

To cite this article: M. K. Jat , D. Khare , P. K. Garg & V. Shankar (2009) Remote sensing and GIS-based assessment of
urbanisation and degradation of watershed health, Urban Water Journal, 6:3, 251-263, DOI: 10.1080/15730620801971920

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 Urban Water Journal
Vol. 6, No. 3, September 2009, 251–263

CASE STUDY
Remote sensing and GIS-based assessment of urbanisation and degradation
of watershed health
M.K. Jata*, D. Khareb, P.K. Gargc and V. Shankard
a
Civil Engineering Department, MNIT Jaipur, India; bWater Resources Development & Management, IIT Roorkee, India; cCivil
Engineering Department, IIT Roorkee, India; dCivil Engineering Department, NIT Hamirpur, India

Water resources, ecological quality, i.e. vegetation, flora-fauna, native plants, etc., and geo-morphological
characteristics are some of the important elements that represent health of a watershed. Watershed health can be
Downloaded by [University of Tennessee, Knoxville] at 06:51 05 January 2015

assessed through some of the indirect metrics, such as change in rainfall-runoff response, depletion of groundwater,
groundwater pollution and degradation of geo-morphological characteristics. In the present study, application of
remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) technologies have been demonstrated for assessment of
health of two urbanised sub-watersheds over a period of last 29 years (1977–2005). Investigation includes estimation
of urbanisation and resulting changes in the watershed characteristics representing heath of watershed, such as change
in surface runoff response, groundwater level, groundwater quality and morphological characteristics. Remote
sensing images of eight years (1977–2005) have been used for extraction of land use/cover and urban growth. Change
in surface runoff characteristics have been estimated using a physically based distributed storm water management
model (SWMM). Groundwater analysis has been carried out in GIS to determine the change in groundwater level and
quality over a period of 1992 to 2005. Results reveal that rate of land development in Ajmer is higher as compared to
the population growth. Significant changes have been found in important watershed characteristics leading to
deterioration of its health. Remote sensing and GIS technologies have been found to be useful for such studies.
Keywords: urbanisation; watershed; SWMM model; morphology; degradation; GIS

1. Introduction Therefore, it is essential to assess the impact of

Urbanisation is characterised by clustering of people in
relatively small areas and is recognised as an inevitable
historical process. In 1975, about 21.3% of the India’s
population used to live in cities, whereas by the year
2003, it was around 28.3% (UN 2004). Urban growth
is one such phenomenon that drives changes in land
use pattern. These changes may have adverse impact
on watershed health, which include ecology, especially
hydro-geomorphology, water resources and vegeta-
tion. Urbanisation within a watershed increases the
area of impervious surfaces (Paul and Meyer 2001),
which results in decrease of infiltration and increase of
runoff (Arnold and Gibbons 1996). Further peak
discharge and flood magnitude (Niemczynowicz 1999,
Shuster et al. 2005) increases with increase in surface
runoff. This increase is greater for floods of shorter
recurrence intervals (Hirsch et al. 1990). Situation
further worsened owing to degradation of the drainage
system, which may lead to flooding, ponding of water
and loss of life and property. Reduced infiltration to
the aquifers may also reduce the groundwater recharge
(Paul and Meyer 2001).
urbanisation on water resources, hydro-geological
characteristics of urbanised watersheds for sustain-
able environment. Unfortunately, the conventional
surveying and mapping techniques are extremely
expensive and time consuming for such studies. As
a result, increased research interest using remote
sensing and geographic information system (GIS)
techniques is being directed for the mapping and
monitoring of urban growth, land use/cover and
hydro-geomorphological characteristics (Epstein
et al. 2002).
These studies were mainly focused on individual
aspects of the watershed health such as change in land
use/cover and urban growth modelling (Sudhira et al.
2004, Jat et al. 2007), soil erosion (Chandramohan and
Durbude 2002), morphometric analysis (Narendra and
Rao 2006), impact assessment of urbanisation on
groundwater quantity and quality (Mapani 2005,
White and Greer 2005) and hydrological modelling
(Weng 2001, White and Greer 2005). Various metrics
indicating watershed health have been studied indivi-
dually in most of the studies and integrated studies of

*Corresponding author. Email: mahesh.mnit@gmail.com

ISSN 1573-062X print/ISSN 1744-9006 online

Ó 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/15730620801971920
http://www.informaworld.com
 252
change in land use/cover, urban growth, hydrology
and geomorphology are lacking.
In the present paper an attempt has been made to
investigate the fundamental relationship between urban
area (built-up) and how it alters land use/cover,
morphology (Table 1) and relationships between different
components of urban hydrological cycle (runoff and
groundwater recharge). Further study demonstrated the
scope and potential use of remote sensing and GIS
techniques for estimation of urbanisation and its conse-
quences on watershed health and surrounding ecology.
Study has been carried out considering two urbanised
sub-watersheds, Anasagar and Khanpura, which cover
major portion of Ajmer City of Rajasthan State (India).
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2. The study area
The study area is located between 268 200 N to 268
350 N latitude and 748 330 E to 748450 E longitude
Table 1. Formulae and relationships for the computations of morphometric parameters.
Morphometric
S. No. parameter
1 Stream order
2 Stream length (Lu)
3 Drainage density (D)
4 Drainage texture (Rt)
Figure 1. Location of the study area.
M.K. Jat et al.
(Figure 1). Municipal limit of Ajmer spreads over an
area of 250 km2. Population of Ajmer was 0.49 million
in year 2001, and as per the present growth rate, it
would be 0.84 million in year 2034 (Anonymous 1998).
Two sub-watersheds i.e. Anasagar and Khanpura
cover major portion of Ajmer urban area.
3. Data used
The data have been collected from primary and
secondary sources. The primary data collected are
Survey of India (SOI) topo-sheets at a scale of 1:25 000
(No. 45J/10/5, 6 and 45J/11/1, 2, 3, 4) and multi-
spectral satellite images from LANDSAT MSS, TM,
ETMþ and Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) LISS-II,
LISS-III sensors for 8 years i.e. 1977, 1989, 1991, 1994,
1997, 2000, 2002 and 2005, respectively. The secondary
data collected includes demographic details, water
levels of Anasagar and Foysagar lakes, meteorological
Formulae/Relationship Reference
Hierarchical rank Strahler 1964
Length of stream Horton 1945
D ¼ Lu/A, where A is the total area Horton 1932
of basin (km2), Lu is the total
stream length of all orders
Rt ¼ Nu/P, where Nu is the total number Horton 1945
of streams of all orders, P is the
perimeter of basin in km2
 Urban Water Journal 253

data and geological information. Other maps of Ajmer
City, such as ward map, municipal boundary map,
drainage and master plan maps have been obtained
from the Town Planning Department of Ajmer and
Rajasthan Urban Infrastructure Development Project
(RUIDP), Ajmer.
4. Methodology
Understanding the dynamic phenomenon, such as
urbanisation and its impact on sub-watershed health
require change analyses of different phenomena, like
land use/cover, runoff response, groundwater status,
geomorphology and ecological system. Methodology
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image classification has been carried out using
Gaussian maximum likelihood classifier (MLC). While
classifying, MLC assigns a particular pixel to a class,
for which weighted distance (likelihood) is lowest.
Further, classified images have been refined in a post
classification process using a knowledge-based expert
system approach and other ancillary data, like digital
elevation model (DEM), municipal boundary map and
SOI topo-sheet.
Further, accuracy assessment has been done using
accuracy assessment tool of ERDAS Imagine to
compare classified images with the reference data.
More than 250 reference pixels have been selected for
each image. While selecting reference pixels, it has been

adopted in present study has been discussed in
following sections.
4.1. Image analysis and GIS database creation
ERDAS imagine software (Leica) is being used for
standard image processing techniques, such as image
extraction, rectification, restoration and classification
of eight satellite images (1991, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2002
and 2005). For different targeted land use/cover
classes, training samples have been selected to collect
signatures for supervised classification. For each land
use/cover signature, adequate number of pixels (111
pixels to 2641 pixels) have been selected satisfying the
10n criterion, where n is number of bands used for the
classification (Congalton and Green 1999).
Statistical properties (standard deviation, histo-
gram plot, etc.) of the signatures have been analysed
thoroughly and signatures are refined before the
classification. The signatures are evaluated for feature
separability using separability criteria i.e. transform
divergence (TD), to select the appropriate bands to be
considered for final supervised classification. Details of
bands used in classification and respective TD values
are given in Table 2. Based on these refined signatures
ensured that each class has more than 20 reference
pixels. Class values of the reference pixels have been
supplied manually to accuracy assessment module of
ERDAS after examining each reference pixel against
the ground truth data and available maps. Further,
accuracy report and Kappa coefficient have been
generated. Details of accuracy assessment for all the
images are presented in Table 2. For all the images,
overall accuracy has been found to be between 90 and
95%. The Kappa coefficient has been found between
0.90 and 0.94 for all the images. Classified images of
years 1977 and 2005 and land use/cover details are
shown in Figures 2 and 3. For various years, the urban
area has been obtained from these classified satellite
images. Demographic and urban growth (built-up)
details are presented in Table 3.
Watershed approach has been used in the present
study to investigate the effect of urbanisation. GIS
database has been created for rainfall runoff model-
ling, groundwater analysis and geo-morphological
analysis using ERDAS and ArcGIS software’s
(ESRI). The GIS database includes sub-watershed
and micro-watershed delineation, drainage network
(rivers, streams and water bodies), contour map, soil,
land use/cover, groundwater observation well map,

Table 2. Classification statistics and classification accuracy.

Signature separability
(Transform Divergence) Classification accuracy
Band used in Overall accuracy Overall Kappa
Year Sensor Average Min classification (%) statistics
1977 Landsat MSS 1941 1802 1, 3 & 4 95.20 0.94
1989 Landsat TM 1980 1748 1, 3, 4 & 5 94.80 0.94
1991 IRS IB LISS-II 1978 1714 1, 2 & 4 94.00 0.93
1994 IRS IB LISS-II 1991 1875 1, 2 & 4 92.60 0.92
1997 IRS IC LISS-III 1996 1879 1, 3 & 4 90.12 0.90
2000 Landsat ETMþ 2000 1997 1, 2, 4 & 5 90.90 0.90
2002 IRS ID LISS III 2000 1993 1, 3 & 4 94.08 0.94
2005 IRS IC LISS-III 1998 1941 2, 3 & 4 94.98 0.94
 254 M.K. Jat et al.
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Figure 2. Land use/cover maps corresponding to years 1977 and 2005.

Table 3. Urban growth statistics for Ajmer city. micro-watersheds corresponding to third-order
Percentage streams (Figure 3) using contour information.
Built-up increase Percentage Groundwater GIS database includes layers of
area in urban Projected growth in observation well location with water level and water
Year (hectare) area (%) population population (%) quality attributes and geological formation available in
1977 488.03 – 331073 – the area (Figure 4). Groundwater data from 21 wells
1989 838.41 71.79 397279 19.99 were obtained and used for the preparation of GIS
1991 909.01 8.42 402700 1.36 database.
1994 979.13 7.71 428932 6.51
1997 1071.54 9.43 455163 6.11
2000 1139.38 35.89 481395 5.76
2002 1259.81 10.56 497160 3.27 4.2. Rainfall-runoff analysis
2005 1463.00 16.13 525114 5.62 Rainfall runoff modelling has been carried out using
Note: Population has been projected using piecewise linear inter-
SWMM (Huber and Dickinson 1992). The SWMM is
polation based on historical data of last four decades. a physically based distributed model, having capabil-
ities of continuous as well as event base simulations.
The SWMM and GIS have been externally coupled to
groundwater level surfaces and administrative bound- extract the model parameters. Rainfall-runoff analysis
aries. DEM has been generated using contour infor- has been carried out only for the Anasagar sub-
mation. DEM has further been used to generate watershed, as measured data of runoff volume are not
slope and aspect maps, which are used in rainfall- available for Khanpura. First of all, conceptual rain-
runoff modelling. Sub-watersheds, surrounding the fall-runoff model has been created in SWMM. While
Ajmer city were delineated in GIS using SOI topo- conceptualising, Green Ampt’s model has been se-
sheets. Sub-watersheds are further discretised into lected for the estimation of infiltration, Manning’s
 Urban Water Journal 255
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Figure 3. Change in land use/cover over a period of 29 years (1977 to 2005).

model for non-linear overland flow routing and
Kinematic Wave model for the flow routing in drains.
Further, the runoff model of Anasagar sub-watershed
has been calibrated using manual iterative procedure
and observed data of runoff volume of year 2000.
Model parameters selected for the calibration includes
depression storage, width of overland flow, and
Manning’s coefficients for the overland flow routing.
Continuous simulation has been carried out for the
whole monsoon period (1 June to 30 September 2000).
For calibration period, simulated runoff volume is
available in the Storage unit (object) of SWMM. This
simulated runoff and observed runoff volume are
compared during the calibration process. In the
manual calibration procedure, the model parameters
are changed one by one until the computed flow is
fitted against the observed flow. A good agreement has
been seen between hydrographs of computed and
observed runoff volume, which indicates a satisfactory
calibration.
To determine the effect of urbanisation on runoff
response, year 1994 has been considered as the
base year. The calibrated model has been used for
rainfall-runoff simulation for year 1994, adopting the
percentage impervious area in each micro-watershed
corresponding to different years, i.e. 1977, 1989, 1991,
 256 M.K. Jat et al.

1994, 1997, 2000, 2002 and 2005, while keeping other
model parameters (meteorological, soil, topographical,
etc.) as constant (of year 1994). The model has been run in
continuous simulation mode for four months period
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after assigning input data from GIS database. Three
hourly rainfall data has been used in the analysis. Runoff
volume so obtained reflects the effect of increase in
impervious surface (Figure 5 and Table 4).

Figure 4. Location of groundwater wells, Anasagar sub-watershed, faults/folds and watershed covering Ajmer.

Figure 5. Increase in runoff with increase in urban area (built-up) in the watershed.
 Urban Water Journal 257

pre monsoon seasons. Depletion of groundwater from

4.3. Groundwater analysis
The watershed approach has been used in the present
study for the assessment of impact on groundwater.
For change analysis of groundwater levels and quality
owing to urbanisation, years 1991 and 2005 have been
selected, as groundwater level data are available for
year 1991 to 2005 (for both pre and post monsoon,
measured in May and November, respectively).
Groundwater level contour and fluctuation maps
have been prepared for both years (1991 to 2005) after
interpolation of groundwater level data of 21 wells,
using inverse weighted distance (IWD) algorithm.
Groundwater fluctuation surfaces have been obtained
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1991 to 2005 has been obtained by differentiating the
groundwater level surfaces of both years using spatial
analyst tool of ArcGIS (Figure 6). Groundwater
quality change analysis has been done using the quality
data of two years, i.e. 1992 and 2003. A total nine
parameters have been used in the analysis (Table 5).
Further, an attempt has been made to assess the
impact of urbanisation on groundwater in term of
water levels and quality, spatially and temporally using
simple overlay analysis in GIS.
4.4. Morphometric analysis

by differentiating the water level surfaces of post and Morphometric analysis has been done using drainage
network layers created in GIS. Initially, drainage
Table 4. Variation in peak runoff with change in urban area map is prepared in GIS using topo-sheet (published
(built-up). in year 1976) (Figure 7). Drainage map is further
updated using IRS 1D LISS-III image (2005) and
Peak % Urban % Increase in urban settlement map of Ajmer as on in year 2000
runoff Impervious area peak runoff
Year (1000 m3) area (ha) (built-up) volume (Figure 8). Morphometric analysis of parameters
(Table 1), namely stream order, stream length,
1977 2002.34 41.58 1.26 – drainage density, drainage texture, area, perimeter,
1989 2232.27 167.36 4.10 11.48
1991 2261.64 205.49 5.04 12.95
length and width of both the sub-watersheds has
1994 2371.17 233.17 5.72 18.42 been carried out using GIS database created for
1997 2474.77 271.39 6.65 23.59 the drainage network. The designation of stream
2000 2490.90 285.56 6.99 24.40 order is the first step in drainage basin analysis. It is
2002 2628.40 374.14 9.17 31.27
2005 2852.14 464.33 12.36 42.44 based on hierarchical ranking of streams proposed
by Strahler (1964). Different morphometric

Figure 6. Depletion of groundwater levels during 1992 to 2005.

 258 M.K. Jat et al.

Table 5. Change in groundwater quality during 1992 to 2003.

Anasagar Khanpura
Quality parameter Permissible limit 1992 2003 Change (%) 1992 2003 Change (%)
Ph 8.5 7.9 8.6 7.95 8.1 8.6 6.54
Total hardness (TH) mg/l 300.0 173.3 173.3 0.00 306.6 396.0 29.16
Total dissolved solids (TDS) in mg/l 500.0 448.3 783.0 74.66 575.0 2162.0 276.00
Chloride (Cl) in mg/l 250.0 87.7 157.0 79.08 360.0 806.0 123.89
Niterate (NO3) in mg/l 45.0 20.0 40.7 103.35 20.0 58.0 190.00
Calcium (Ca) in mg/l 75.0 20.3 29.3 44.33 24.7 63.0 155.06
Magnesium (Mg) in mg/l 30.0 18.0 24.7 37.06 29.0 57.6 98.62
Sulphate (SO4) in mg/l 200.0 47.3 79.2 67.44 97.7 171.3 75.33
Fluoride in mg/l 1.0 0.8 2.4 193.98 0.6 2.2 265.00
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Figure 7. Drainage map of Anasagar and Khanpura sub-watersheds in year 1977.

measurements have been done corresponding to

years 1977 and 2005 to arrive at the spatial and
temporal changes in geomorphology owing to
urbanisation. Stream length is the total length of
streams in a particular order. The number of streams
of various order in a sub-watershed are counted and
their lengths have been extracted in GIS. Generally,
the total length of stream segments decreases with
stream order. Comparative analysis of various
morphometric parameters, corresponding to years
1977 and 2005 has been given in Tables 6, 7 and 8.
Necessary data required to calculate the above
mentioned morphometric parameters have been
obtained from the GIS database.
5. Results
5.1. Land use/cover and urban growth
Nine land use/cover classes have been identified based
upon the land use pattern of the study area, which
include urban settlement, water, shrub land, wet
alluvium soil, rocky terrain, exposed rocks, barren
land, sandy soil and mix vegetation (Figures 2 and 3).
Areas developed for human habitation are classified as
urban settlement, which includes all types of built-up
area, such as buildings, transport, communication
facilities, commercial establishments, and industrial
estates, recreation utilities in association with water,
vegetation and paved ways.
 Urban Water Journal 259
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Figure 8. Updated drainage map of Anasagar and Khanpura sub-watersheds in year 2005.

Table 6. Morphometry of the sub-watersheds surrounding Table 7. Morphometry of the sub-watersheds surrounding
Ajmer (year 1977). Ajmer (2005).

Total Total
length of length of
Stream Number of streams in Stream Number of streams in
Sub-watershed order streams Nu km (Lu) Sub-watershed order streams Nu km (Lu)
Anasagar 1 429 128.63 Anasagar 1 358 114.56
2 236 53.29 2 189 49.28
3 103 28.97 3 93 26.05
4 30 8.17 4 26 7.96
5 14 8.68 5 20 8.24
Khanpura 1 608 145.15 Khanpura 1 509 129.60
2 297 49.83 2 267 59.19
3 136 31.53 3 90 22.60
4 73 17.03 4 78 19.26
5 14 11.23 5 14 10.32

Results indicate that rate of land development is
outstripping the rate of population growth. From 1977
to 2005, population grew by about 59% while the
amount of developed land grew by 200%, i.e. more
than three times the rate of population growth. The
density of the population has reduced from 678 people/
ha in 1977 to 358.9 people/ha in year 2005. This
indicates that development has occurred at a rate of
199 peoples/ha, which is less than one-third that of pre
1977 development. As an average, urban area in Ajmer
has grown at a rate of 13.3% annually as com-
pared to population growth of around 4.5%. Land
development has occurred faster in Anasagar as
compared to Khanpura. In Anasagar, percentage of
urban area has increased from 1.21% in year 1977 to
12.36% in year. In Khanpura percentage of urban area
has increased from 7.97% in year 1977 to 16.47%
(963 ha) in year 2005 (Figures 2 and 3).
5.2. Surface runoff
Model calibration has been found to be satisfactory, as
coefficient of correlation between the observed and
computed runoff values is around 0.99. Calibrated
 260 M.K. Jat et al.
Table 8. Aerial aspects of Anasagar and Khanpura sub-watersheds.
Sub-watershed (1977)
Morphometric parameter Anasagar
2
Area (A) (km ) 40.80
Perimeter (P) (km) 35.81
Drainage density (D) ( km71) 5.58
Drainage texture (Rt) (Unit/km) 22.67
parameter values pertaining to infiltration has been
obtained as Ks ¼ 1.50 mm/hr, C ¼ 215.2, F ¼ 0.410.
The calibrated values of depression storage for
pervious and impervious areas have been obtained as
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6.0 mm and 2.0 mm. Surface runoff generated from a
particular rainfall event, depends on topographical
characteristics, meteorological parameters and land
use, especially percentage of built-up area. Results
show significant increase in runoff volume and peak
flow in Anasagar sub-watershed with increase in urban
area (built-up) inspite of constant meteorological
conditions (Table 4 and Figure 5).
With similar meteorological condition, peak runoff
has increased from 2.002 Mm3 in year 1977 to
2.852 Mm3 in year 2005. Increase in peak runoff is
more than three times as compared to increase in urban
area (Table 4). Such a condition also increases the time
to peak runoff, which would again create problem of
flooding in low lying areas. Continuous runoff simula-
tion results reveal that runoff would increase exponen-
tially with increase in urban area (Table 4, Figure 5). It
is intuitive that an increased proportion of impervious
surface brings with it shorter lag times between onset of
precipitation and subsequently higher runoff peaks and
total volume of runoff in receiving water bodies.
Further, increase in peak runoff and simultaneously
reducing drainage area, i.e. reduced cross-section of
drains, obstructions in drainage owing to unauthorised
construction, leads to many environmental problems,
like flooding, erosion, ponding of water and mosquito
nuisance. There are many such examples in almost all
the Indian cities during the monsoon season.
5.3. Groundwater
The net effect of urbanisation on groundwater
recharge can be assessed indirectly, which is propor-
tional to the area of impervious surfaces. With
urbanisation, pervious areas become impervious, and
subsequently rainfall recharge reduces. In Anasagar
sub-watershed built-up area has increased from 1.26%
to 12.36% of total geographical area from 1977 to
2005 (Figure 3). Similarly, in Khanpura sub-watershed
percentage of urbanised area has increased from
7.97% to 16.47% from 1977 to 2005. Therefore,
Sub-watershed (2005)
Khanpura Anasagar Khanpura
58.20 40.80 58.20
41.33 35.81 41.33
8.29 5.05 4.14
46.94 19.15 23.17
groundwater recharge has probably reduced by the
same amount. Groundwater has been depleted sig-
nificantly as depth of water table increased from 1.19
m to 18.11 m in both sub-watersheds. This indicates an
overall decline in groundwater on account of reduced
recharge and increase in withdrawal (Figure 6).
Average depletion in groundwater level from 1992 to
2005 has been found as 9.6 m (Figure 5).
As shown in Table 5, groundwater pollution has
increased in Ajmer between years 1992 and 2005. The
concentrations of all significant water quality para-
meters have increased since 1992, which indicate
deterioration of groundwater quality owing to reduc-
tion in recharge from the rainfall and increase in
recharge from urban wastewater. This increase in
groundwater pollution is high in both sub-watersheds.
This is largely as a result of relatively high urban
population density and the significant low dilution
afforded by both aquifer through flow and low urban
water use. It is evident from above data that ground-
water quality has deteriorated significantly since 1992,
as a result of urbanisation. Concentration of most of
the parameters is well above the permissible limits.
Groundwater quality in Khanpura sub-watershed is
more deteriorated as compared to Anasagar.
5.4. Morphometric analysis
Results of the morphometric analysis indicate signifi-
cant alteration in the drainage characteristics of the
area, as a result of urbanisation. Results of the
morphometric analysis have been discussed as below.
5.4.1. Stream order
Anasagar and Khanpura are designated as fifth-order
sub-watersheds (Tables 6 and 7). Results revealed a
significant reduction in number of drains for both sub-
watersheds from year 1977 to 2005, owing to
urbanisation. The number of stream segments has
been reduced by 15.5% in Anasagar and by 50.61% in
Khanpura sub-watersheds. Drainage network is more
deteriorated in Khanpura as compared to Anasagar
sub-watershed as major urban growth has taken place
in this sub-watershed.
 Urban Water Journal
5.4.2. Stream length
The total length of stream segments of different order
in Anasagar and Khanpura sub-watershed has been
reduced significantly as a result of encroachment,
obstruction and construction activities across the
stream alignment(Tables 6 and 7). Urbanisation has
severely reduced the streams length in Khanpura sub-
watershed (50.06%) as compared to Anasagar sub-
watershed (9.5%).
5.4.3. Drainage density (D)
It is an important indicator of the linear scale of land-
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form elements in stream-eroded topography. In
Khanpura sub-watershed drainage density has been
reduced significantly (450%) as compared to Anasa-
gar sub-watershed (9.49%) as major urban activities
have taken place in Khanpura sub-watershed
(Table 8).
5.4.4. Drainage texture
In Anasagar sub-watershed, drainage texture has
reduced from 22.67 unit/km in year 1977 to 19.15
unit/km in year 2005. Similarly, in Khanpura sub-
watershed it has reduced from 46.94 unit/km in year
1977 to 23.17 unit/km in year 2005 (Table 8). This
reduction in drainage texture reveals the reduction in
drains as a result of development activities, which
indicates deterioration of watershed health.
6. Discussion
Watershed health is a broad term which include water
resources (surface and groundwater), ecological qual-
ity, i.e. vegetation, flora & fauna, native plants etc.,
and geo-morphological characteristics. However,
change in rainfall-runoff processes, morphological
characteristics and water resources are important and
indicative parameters of watershed health. Change in
rainfall-runoff process may leads to erosion, flash
flooding, change in channel course and loss of
vegetation. Similarly, degradation of morphometry
indirectly represents deterioration of watershed health
in term of loss of vegetation, native plant, wildlife
species, disturbed soil-moisture balance and reduction
in groundwater recharge. These characteristics tend to
change on account of urbanisation, thus watershed
health can be assessed using some of the indirect
metrics/phenomena, like change in rainfall-runoff,
change in groundwater quality and recharge and
degradation in geomorphological characteristics.
Urban growth (increase in built-up area) of Ajmer
is more than three times (200%) of the population
261
growth (59%). This implies that the rate of land
development (urbanisation) is faster as compared to
population growth, which indicates that per capita
consumption of land has increased exceptionally over
last three decades. Urban area has grown more in
Khanpura sub-watershed as compared to the Anasa-
gar sub-watershed (Figure 2). Such a growth creates
significant adverse effects on various hydro-geological
characteristics of the watersheds. Owing to unplanned
urbanisation, drain alignments have changed, their
capacities are reduced owing to encroachment and
undue built-up activities. Pervious areas have been
changed into impervious surfaces, which reduce the
infiltration into the groundwater resulting in an
increase in peak flows and overall degradation of
watershed health.
A comparative analysis of the vital morphometric
parameters corresponding to year 1977 and 2005
indicates deterioration of watershed health (Tables 6
and 7). Total stream length has reduced by 50% and
10% in Khanpura and Anasagar sub-watersheds,
respectively. Total length of stream segments of
different order in Anasagar and Khanpura sub-
watershed have been reduced by 21.771 km and
241.546 km in last the 29 years as a result of
encroachment, obstruction and built-up activities in
the way of streams. A comparative analysis of
morphometric parameters of Anasagar and Khanpura
sub-watershed indicates a very clear picture of impact
of urbanisation. Urbanisation has taken place more in
Khanpura as compared to the Anasagar (Figures 2
and 3), result in reduction of total length of stream
segments, which is relatively more in Khanpura as
compared to Anasagar sub-watershed. In Khanpura
sub-watershed drainage density has been reduced
significantly (450%) as compared to Anasagar
(9.49%) sub-watershed. Thus, it can be concluded
that urbanisation proportionally reduces the vital
morphometric parameters and degrades the watershed
health.
To study the impact of impervious surfaces on
hydrology, Anasagar sub-watershed has been chosen.
Rainfall-runoff analysis is carried out for year 1994,
considering the area of impervious surfaces of different
years. From year 1977 to 2005, urban area (built-up) of
Anasagar sub-watershed has increased by 11.10%
(1.26% in year 1977 to 12.36% in year 2005), however
peak runoff has increases by more than 42% (Table 4
and Figure 5). This means that peak runoff will
increase exponentially with increase in impervious
surfaces. This increase in peak runoff volume and
peak flow has very undesirable consequences, such as
flooding, ponding of water in low lying areas,
pollution, loss of property and many health hazards.
Such problems would further aggravate with
 262 M.K. Jat et al.
unplanned urbanisation, which is a common phenom-
ena in developing countries.
Urbanisation has a profound effect on ground-
water recharge, and quality. Groundwater level has
dropped from 1.19 m to 18.1 m (Figure 6), as a result
of reduction in groundwater recharge owing to an
increase in impervious surfaces (488 ha in 1977 to 1463
ha in 2005). Groundwater quality corresponding to the
most of vital parameters (TDS, chloride, average total
hardness, nitrate, fluoride) has been deteriorated
significantly, which are well above the permissible
limits. The main processes responsible for the increase
in groundwater pollution include increase wastewater
recharge with increase in population, leakage from
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sewers, in-situ wastewater disposal and urban drainage
soakways.
There may be other causes of deterioration of
watershed health in addition to the adverse effects of
urbanisation, which may include topography (higher
slopes may leads to more erosion), fractured aquifer
(leads to groundwater pollution), absence of sewerage
system and agricultural activities. However, regular
agricultural activities are not found in the area.
Remote sensing and GIS technologies provide a
cost-effective way of monitoring and analysis of
dynamic phenomena, such as urbanisation and its
impact on surrounding ecology, as compared to
conventional surveying and mapping techniques,
which are expensive and time consuming. Present
study demonstrated the application of remote sensing
and GIS technologies for monitoring and estimation of
urban growth, hydrological modelling, watershed
parameterisation and impact assessment of impervious
surfaces. Some of the significant characteristics/prop-
erties of watershed health, i.e. runoff, change in land
use, change in groundwater quality and morphological
characteristics are considered for impact assessment of
urbanisation. However, many other aspects can be
included in the study which includes quality aspects of
the receiving bodies, loss of vegetation and other
environmental aspects. Such a study is useful for urban
planners and resource managers to protect the hydro-
geomorphologic environment along with the develop-
ment of urban areas in a region.
7. Conclusions
Remote sensing technique coupled with GIS has been
proved to be an efficient tool to study urban growth and
its consequences on watershed health in terms of runoff
responses, change in land use/cover, reduction in
groundwater level, deterioration in groundwater qual-
ity and degradation of morphological characteristics.
The rate of land development in Ajmer is out-
stripping the rate of population growth. Since 1977 to
2005, population of Ajmer has increased by 59%,
while urbanisation grew by 200%. Analysis of
morphological characteristics reveals that urbanisation
lead to reduction in drain lengths, discontinuity of
drains at many locations, obstruction owing to
construction, encroachment and change in alignment
of drains. Drainage density in both the sub-watersheds
(Anasagar and Khanpura) has reduced significantly by
9.5% and 50.06% respectively. Length of all drain
segments (first order to fifth order) has reduced
significantly (9.5% to 50.06%) which indicate degra-
dation of geomorphologic character in both the
watersheds as a result of urbanisation. In both the
sub-watersheds, number of drain segments has reduced
by 15.5% to 50.62%, respectively.
In the last 29 years, the urban area in Anasagar
sub-watershed has been increased from 1.26% in year
1977 to 12.36% in year 2005; however, peak runoff
would increase by more than 42% corresponding to
urban area (built-up) of year 2005. Such situations
create many hydrological problems, like overflow of
drains, flooding, erosion and interruption of water at
many locations resulting unhygienic conditions and
degradation of watershed health. Groundwater has
depleted significantly in last 13 years (1992 to 2005)
from 1.19 m to 18.1 m (below the ground surface), as a
result of excessive groundwater withdrawal and less
recharge. Groundwater quality has also degraded with
respect to most of the important parameters. This
increase in groundwater pollution is higher in the
whole area, although quite variable. This is largely as a
result of the relatively high urban population density
and the significant low dilution afforded by both
aquifer through flow and low urban water use. Such a
study is useful for urban planners and resource
managers to protect the hydro-geomorphologic envir-
onment along with the development of urban areas in a
region.
Acknowledgements
The RUIDP Authorities, Government of Rajasthan, Survey
of India, and Department of Space are acknowledged for
providing data used in this paper. AICTE, Government of
India is also acknowledged for providing financial support
under QIP program.
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