Status of GIS-enabled morphometric analysis of river basins of Kerala, Southern India: A review and assessment

Kerala is a narrow strip of land beside one of the greatest escarpments of India-the Western Ghats, where the rivers are comparatively shorter and younger. In this article, we have compiled the data from GIS-enabled morphometric studies on the rivers of Kerala state, Southern India from 25 published research articles. An attempt is also made to validate first and second Horton's laws and the correlation between the morphometric parameters by statistical analysis of the data. Recent studies from thirteen rivers of Kerala provide a better understanding of the lithologic, tectonic, and climatic controls in the development of drainage basin. It is inferred from the studies that, GIS-based morphometric analysis of drainage basins provides precise data having prospects to create an updated digital Drainage Network Atlas of Kerala. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

By compiling data from GIS-enabled morphometric studies on rivers, a better understanding of the lithologic, tectonic, and climatic controls on river development in Kerala state is gained, with prospects to create an updated digital Drainage Network Atlas.