Geomorphological analysis and prioritization of sub-watersheds using Snyder's synthetic unit hydrograph method

The present study makes an attempt to prioritize sub-watersheds based on Snyder's synthetic unit hydrograph method. Snyder's method of synthetic unit hydrograph calculates peak discharge and lag time of the unit hydrograph for each sub-watersheds. Compound values of ranking are calculated from assigned rankings to parameters, viz. peak discharge and lag time. Depending on the range of the compound values sub-watersheds are classified as high, medium and low soil-erosive subwatersheds. The priorities obtained from Snyder's synthetic unit hydrograph method are compared with the methods of morphometric analysis and land use/land cover analysis. On comparison of priorities for Dangri River watershed, Panchkula District, Haryana (India), among the three methods it was found that the sub-watershed (SW1) has the same priority. Among all the three methods, Snyder's synthetic unit hydrograph is a better method, as it is easier to use and less data intensive.