Delineation and Assessment of Hab watershed, Balochistan, Pakistan through Geo-spatial Technology

Abstract

Water is one of the key elements of life and Pakistan is facing acute water shortage. The problem is more
severe in the mega cities like Karachi and nearby areas in which industries and population are growing at a very high
rate. Presently, Karachi is getting only about 55 percent of water against its fast increasing requirements leading to water
crises in Karachi city. The Hab River is one of the main and important water supply sources for Hab industrial estate and
Karachi. Therefore, it is extremely important to study this area with an aim to explore, develop and exploit its water
resources for the current and upcoming requirements of the area. This paper is about the investigation of the potential of
water resources in the Hab watershed through geo-informatics. Hydrological modeling has been done in GIS
environment, which outlines a complete picture of Hab watershed and provides assessment of the potential of the
watershed located in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Watershed boundaries have been established and its area
has been estimated in GIS environment. Considering the large area, Hab watershed has been categorized as macro
watershed. Drainage characteristics of the watershed have been defined through GIS datasets, which were derived by
performing drainage analysis on a terrain model. Other key contributions of the study include stream network
analysis, flow accumulation and flow pattern analysis of the watershed.
Keywords: Geo-informatics, hydrological modeling, delineation, drainage network, watershed.