Planform dynamics of the Chel River in North Bengal Plain of Eastern India

Abstract

In the present paper, an attempt to reconstruct planform changes of the river Chel over the period 1955-2017 has been made using Topographical sheets, multi- temporal Landsat images and supplemented by field work. The study has been carried through an assessment of changes in channel morphology, sinuosity index variation, braiding index variation and braid-channel ratio variation. The different types of morphological changes observed during the entire assessment period were: neck cut-off and consequent straightening of course, Changes in channel width, development and abandonment of anabranches, and shifting of meander bends. Computation of planform indices shows decreasing trends of Sinuosity and braiding index.