International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 9, Issue 10, October 2019 10
ISSN 2250-3153
http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.9.10.2019.p9403 www.ijsrp.org
The Image Processing of Morphological Changes by
Using RS &GIS (Case Study on Bago River, Myanmar)
De. Khin Mar Yee1, Dr. Mu Mu Than2, Dr. Kyi Lint3, Dr. May Myat Thu 4,
Dr. Chan Mya Hmway5, Dr. Mar Lar Han6
1 Associate Professor, Geospatial Technology Center, Department of Geography, Dagon University 2 Associate Professor, Geospatial Technology Center, Department of Geography, Dagon University
3 Professor and Head, Department of Geography, Dagon University 4 Professor, Department of Geography, Dagon University
5 Assistant Lecturer, Department of Electronics, Technical University (Thanlyin) 6 Associate Professor, Geospatial Technology Center, Department of Geography, Dagon University
DOI: 10.29322/IJSRP.9.10.2019.p9403
http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.9.10.2019.p9403
Abstract—This research relates to a relatively understudied
landform, the oxbow lake. The work utilizes oxbow lakes to
ascertain the extent and nature of change in a river’s form, and to
study on the man-made of the geomorphological change of Bago
River. It also looks at the incidence of oxbow lakes and alluvial
cutoffs across a watershed, and examines the spatial-temporal
distribution of these landforms for morphological changes. The
objectives of this study were to investigate the document of
changes in channel planform and cross-section of the Bago River
and to analayse whether the changes could have contributed to
the frequent flooding or vice versa. The main data applies six
satellite images (1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017) with
less than 10 percent cloud cover and download from the United
States of Geological Survey (USGS). The overlay of digitized
image processing goes to the destination of this research work.
The results show the morphological change of oxbow lakes with
the aid of the Remote Sensing and Geographic Information
System’ (RS & GIS) image processing. The field survey for
ground check is essential for not only oxbow changes but also
residents’ opinions for the accuracy of the result. Over 25 years
period, agriculture developed rapidly in the catchment and
flooding of the alluvial plain has become more frequent in recent
times.
Index Terms— oxbow lakes, morphological changes, Bago River,
Remote Sensing, Geographic Information System
I. INTRODUCTION
Various studies in this regard have been carried out for some
major rivers all over the world [1-6]. Several investigators have
used remotely sensed data for ascertaining channel changes and
banks to provide a base for estimating the response of the rivers
to flood events [7]. Large-scale flooding is a global phenomenon
that causes widespread devastation, economic damage, and loss
of human lives [8].
Schumm [9] noted that most studies of river metamorphosis
are inhibited by the channel change itself. Because the old
channel and any basis for comparison with current conditions are
destroyed in the process of change, it is necessary to look for
other means of comparison. Agriculture and deforestation are
generally associated with increased erosion in stream [10],
filling channels and valleys with sediment. Knox [11] noted the
historical increase in floodplain alluviation in southwestern
Wisconsin streams as valleys in agricultural areas filled in with
silt-loam sediments. Research on earlier river conditions has
utilized paleochannels in the sediment record [8], floodplain [9,
12], and point bar deposits [13] as proxies for former channel
conditions. These techniques have been employed to determine
the channel geometry, bed materials, and flow conditions of
streams in the past. Such techniques, augmented with historical
evidence in the form of maps and aerial photographs, can
provide a window into past channel conditions [14]. Allen [15]
describes the processes operating after a stream avulsion
prompts the abandonment of a section of channel. The former
channel is eventually separated from the new channel by the
deposition of bed load materials at the ends of the cutoff in
contact with the river. Once this occurs, the lake becomes a zone
of quiet water and begins to fill with sediments in suspension
delivered during overbank flows. The end result is the filling of
the cutoff with material that differs sedimentologically from the
material in the bed of the original river channel. This, in essence,
makes each oxbow lake a record of a river’s bed elevation and
form. Oxbow lake sedimentation has attracted some attention in
geomorphology [16] describes the sedimentological basis for
how these lakes form, while [17] and [18] describe how they fit
into the longer-term evolution of floodplains. The Bago River
Basin plays an important role for agricultural production in
Myanmar and paddy rice is the main stable crop cultivated in the
Bago Region. During recent years, frequent floods and droughts
have affected the socio-economic development of the Bago
Region. In 2011, Bago river basin, a flood-prone basin in
Myanmar where one of the two severe floods occurred [19-21].
This research work focus on the changing pattern of Bago
International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 9, Issue 10, October 2019 11
ISSN 2250-3153
http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.9.10.2019.p9403 www.ijsrp.org
channel. The oxbow lakes were changed to channel pattern by
human action to reduce flooding.
II. STUDY AREA
The Absolute Location of Bago River is located two
administrative regions, Bago and Yangon Region. The Bago
river is located between 17° 6'21.89"N, 96°28'48.74"E and
16°46'10.54"N, 96°12'19.78"E. It is drain through Bago City and
Townships of Yangon City. It is long 29.18 miles (46.96
kilometers). The location of study area can be shown by fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Location of Study Area
III. OBJECTIVES
- To Study on Morphological Changes of River within five-
year interval
- To retrieve the image processing by remote sensing and
geographic information system
- To analyse on the morphological changes of oxbow lake
areas (part of Bago River)
IV. DATA AND METHODOLOGY
Data
In this study, the main data was six Landsat images. For the
processing of Landsat Thematic Mapper (Landsat 5 TM) dated
February 27, 1992 (6 % cloud cover) and February 24, 1997 (1
% cloud cover), February 14, 2002 (7 % cloud cover), February
20, 2007 (0 % cloud cover), and (Landsat 7TM) dated February
26, 2012(0 % cloud cover) Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager
(OLI) dated February 15, 2017 (1.08 % cloud cover) were used
(Table 1).
TABLE I: ACQUISITION OF LANDSAT SATELLITE IMAGES
Methodology
The procedures of this topic consisted of three phases. The
first phase was a pre field work including collection of training
samples. The second phase was image processing for extraction
and the third phase was the data analysis of the morphological
changes.
B.1 Georeferencing and Survey and Interview
Landsat images have been georeferenced by the using
Survey of Myanmar toposheet, 1696-01. Survey of Myanmar
topographic maps was much helpful to prepare the base maps,
and geocoding the satellite imageries in the case of digital image
interpretation. Taking 4 survey samples for this paper, about 10
interviews were selected for ground checking points and local
information.
B.2 Image Processing
Image enhancement is a kind of image modification
that enables the capabilities omf human vision to identify and
select regions of interests (Billah and Rahman, 2004 ). Landsat 5
TM and Landsat 7 TM record 7 spectral bands and Landsat 8
records 11 bands. For visual purpose any 3 bands were
combined that were acting a False Colour Composite (FCC).
The next step is creation new shape file from the Arc Catalog to
extract and digitize the study area of six images.
B.3 Data analysis of the morphological changes
The six patterns of morphologies compare and overlay layers.
The morphological changes can be found most of the
meandering channel portions. The upstream of Bago river was
clearly the most changing of meandering patterns. The survey
department of water resource management cut off the closed
bank of meandering curve to maintain the channel patterns. The
four sample meandering curves were the example of man-made
morphological change patterns.
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V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 3, showed the spatio-temporal changes of Bago channel
within 25 years (5-year interval). The six figures represented
the pattern changes of 1992 to 2017. The detail view of black
circles was the most changeable morphological meandering
portion of river channel of five-year interval.
Fig.4 compared with the five-year interval changes of Bago
River’ morphological patterns. The high-light rectangle can
be found in detail the changes of the channel pattern within 25
years. The overlay result showed the channel changes of
upper course were higher complicated meandering patterns.
The channel of 1992 was longest and most meandering.
Moreover, the channel of 2017 was the shortest than the other
five channel patters because of human activities. Cut-offs as
river training works were to be carefully planned and
executed in meandering rivers. The cut-off is artificially
induced with a pilot channel to divert the river from a curved
flow which may be endangering valuable land or property or
to straighten its approach to a work or for any other purpose.
As the cut-off shortens the length of the river, it is likely to
cause disturbance of regime upstream and downstream till
readjustment is made. A pilot cut spreads out the period of
readjustment and makes the process gradual. This processing
was made by department of water resource.
Fig.3 morphological changes of Bago River (1992. 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012 and
2017)
The Bago river of 2017 was cut out the shortest path straight
line. The response of the interview, the local people made this
pattern was man-made feature to control for the flood damage.
The artificial man-made feature can be seen in Fig. 5. The
Bago River is often faced by flooding in the Bago River Basin
that natural hazard caused the irregular pattern when river flows.
Cut-off process is artificial process that is need for irregular
pattern of river flow and it can be protect to reduce causing
flooding and the cut-off process have advantages and
disadvantages.
Fig.4 Changing Channel of Bago River (1992 to 2017)
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Point 1 Point 2
17°04'57.6"N 96°25'30.4"E 17°04'58.5"N 96°25'24.5"E
Point 3 Point 4
17°04'58.0"N 96°25'20.9"E 17°04'57.5"N 96°25'19.8"E
Fig.5 Manmade Morphological Changes of Bago River
(four sample sites)
VI. CONCLUSION
Bago rivers in Bago Region have swelled to their highest
levels in more than five decades, according to the Department of
Meteorology and Hydrology. The Bago River Basin plays an
important role for agricultural production of paddy rice in
Myanmar and its socioeconomic development is impacted flood
and drought disasters. Recent flood events have caused major
economic losses to paddy rice agriculture in the Bago River
basin and flood inundation may intensify in the future climates.
Therefore, this study investigates changes of floods and droughts
between past and future climates in the Bago River basin using
numerical model and standardized indices.
From a disaster reduction viewpoint, we believe the
information derived from this study can contribute to
assessments of potential flood damage for the local region, as
well as other locations where data is limited, such as is generally
the case in Myanmar. Such an analysis would also be helpful in
formulating and directing post-event relief efforts.
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