Sumantra Sarathi BISWAS, Sukumar Sengupta Mahavidyalaya, India
Padmini PANI, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Human activities are prominent external factors that significantly affect the fluvial processes. The stream power is the primary agent of a river that controls the erosion and deposition of a river. It is influenced by the natural configuration and artificial construction of a river. The Damodar River flows through the plateau, plateau fringe and plain region of eastern India has been considered for the study. It is altered by several anthropogenic activities such as dam and barrage constructions, sand mining, industries and coal mining etc. The upper and middle sections (~180km) of the river have been taken for the study as stream power variation is significant in these sections. The flow velocity is measured from eleven sites of the upper and middle sections of the river to estimate stream power. The Integrated Anthropogenic Index (IAI) has been developed to identify the natural and anthropogenic dominant reaches. The IAI contains various types of indices such as artificial water surface ratio (AWSR), road along river ratio (RARR), road density (RD), artificial river ratio (ARR), artificial coal mining ratio (ACMR), and bridge along river ratio (BARR). The anthropogenic controlled reaches are characterised by increased stream power with some exceptional knicks. The multimodal stream power distribution of the river reflects several energy alterations due to the dominance of human activities, and bedrock reaches. This reflects in the development of various types of bars which are inversely related to stream power. Innumerable human activities produce slope irregularities resulting in stream power. Thereby, it facilitates erosional and degradation processes of the river.
Mots clés : Stream power|Slope|Integrated Anthropogenic Index|Bar types|Anthropogenic and Natural reaches
A105128SB