An Empirical Assessment of the Dynamics of River Morphology of Ajay River, India

Abstract

Understanding the river dynamics involves analysis of geometry, longitudinal profile, sediment texture of a river etc. The present research focuses on the dynamics of river morphology of the Ajay River of West Bengal, India with an aim of studying the morphological changes of narrowing of river width towards confluence which is still not very well established. The study on the geometrical shape of river on the basis of the relationship within width-depth-velocity is based on the power equations of Leopold and Maddock (1953). The pool-riffle sequence has been observed by taking longitudinal profile of river Ajay using satellite data and field surveying. Sediment samples have been collected from the bed of the river to observe the changes of grain size with changing river velocity. It has also been observed that mean river velocity is the prime factor behind increasing discharge of Ajay River and the frequency of the pool-riffle sequence increases as the river approaches down-stream. The grain size results show that the sediments are sorted poorly to moderately and the coarser texture increases as the velocity of river increases. From the analyses, it is also observed that the river Ajay maintains a natural condition of a graded profile.