A statistical method for deciding how finely to divide steep Himalayan catchments into sub-watersheds, replacing arbitrary manual choices.
Authors
Shravan Kumar Ghimire, Yafeng Lu, Yukuan Wang, Zhengyang Li, Qinwen Li and Nabaraj Dhakal
Published in
Journal of Mountain Science (Springer), 2026
About the study
When a catchment is divided into sub-watersheds for planning, the result depends heavily on the threshold chosen, and in steep mountain terrain that choice is often arbitrary. This study uses variance-based segmentation to find objective thresholds for subdividing catchments in the Central Himalaya, so that watershed units can be reproduced and compared.
Contributions
- A variance-based thresholding method for automated sub-watershed delineation
- A way around the scale dependency that affects watershed delineation in steep terrain
- Reproducible watershed units for conservation, land-use planning and hazard zoning