Morphometric analysis of the watershed of the Serligkhem river (Tuva) using GIS ahd ERS

The Geographic Information System (GIS) serves as an effective tool for determining the structure of the catchment area, water resources management and planning. An important aspect of watershed characteristics is quantitative analysis performed using geoinformation technologies. In this study, GIS and fractal geometry methods were used to identify morphological features and analyze the properties of the Serlig-Khem River basin (Todzhinsky district), Republic of Tyva. The analysis of morphometric parameters includes both linear and areal aspects of the basin. The area of the studied catchment basin, determined in the GIS environment, is 3032.79 km2, mainly with a tree-like asymmetric type of river network pattern. The average bifurcation coefficient of 3.13 indicates that the basin is largely controlled by the structure. The density of the river network is 0.34 km/km2, the basin is pear-shaped. The territory under study has a predominantly mountainous character, with a slope of up to 40-30 degrees within the Academician Obruchev ridge and on the meridional segment. The fractal analysis carried out in the work confirms the assumption about the relationship between the value of the fractal dimension indicator and the degree of coverage of the catchment area by the lines of the river network.