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Arabian Journal of Geosciences (2023) 16:260
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11307-2
ORIGINAL PAPER
Assessment of river channel dynamics and its impact on land use/land
cover in the middle Ganga plain, India
Amit Kumar Tiwari1
· Mallikarjun Mishra2
· Rinku Singh1
· Gopal Shankar Singh1
Received: 2 May 2022 / Accepted: 24 February 2023
© Saudi Society for Geosciences and Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Abstract
Channel dynamics is one of the important features of the Ganga River. It has become a major concern for floodplain residents
as well as for policymakers interested in riverine planning and management. The present study used remote sensing datasets
for a period of about 46 years (1972 to 2018) and explored the spatial and temporal migration of the Ganga River channel in
the middle Ganga plain (MGP), India. The raster datasets were obtained from the United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Earth Explorer. Various features were extracted manually, and supervised classification was performed for land use and land
cover (LU/LC) analysis. This study also used conversion maps to outline the changes within and among different LU/LC
classes. The results show that a significant portion of land along both banks of the Ganga River has changed from 1972 to
2018. This research pinpoints five main sites indicating active channel migration: (i) MS1, (ii) MS2, (iii) MS3, (iv) MS4,
and (v) MS5. All these five sites highlight a significant increase in the built-up area and vegetation cover. Fallow land and
waterbodies have declined at all these five sites. MS1 was the most affected site by the migration of the Ganga River channel.
The results indicate that channel migration and improvements in geomorphic units considerably affect LU/LC.
Keywords River channel dynamics · Ganga River · LU/LC · Middle Ganga plain · Migration
Introduction
River channels refer to the watercourses within the river
valley that habitually migrate laterally in flat and extensive
floodplains (Bierman and Montgomery 2014; Mukherjee and
Pal 2018). Lateral migration is the positional change of a
river channel due to variations in water flow and sediment
discharges (Yang et al. 1999; Thakur et al. 2012). Channel
migration is a periodic event that varies in the floodplain by
alterations in natural flow derived by anthropogenic activi-
ties (Surian 1999). Several studies have been carried out on
the channel migration of rivers such as the Amazon River
(Peixoto et al. 2009), the Yellow River (Chu et al. 2006), the
Piave River (Surian 1999), and the Bosna River (Lovric and
Tosic 2016). River course migration and meander occurring
in the mid-stream result in the channel widening (Debnath
et al. 2017). Erosional side along the river controls its chan-
nel movement (Dhari et al. 2015). Both natural and anthro-
pogenic factors govern the river channel and course changes.
Natural factors controlling channel dynamics include dis-
charge, monsoonal hydrodynamic, topography, geological
structure, soil character, and genesis of the adjoining areas.
Anthropogenic factors affecting channel dynamics comprise
deforestation, and construction of barrages and dams (Thakur
et al. 2012; Jana 2021). Dynamic physical processes result in
horizontal movement of channels that leads to migration over
time (Thakur et al. 2012; Mukherjee and Pal 2018).
River channel migration affects sediment load, which in
turn determines floodplain geomorphology and the forma-
tion of landforms. Heavy flooding abruptly changes the flow
pattern of the rivers (Desai et al. 2012). The rate of lateral
movement in alluvial rivers regulates (i) the dynamics and
scales of various landscapes such as floodplains, alluvial
fans, alluvial sections of bedrock rivers, and deltas (Bufe
et al. 2019), (ii) the plant and animal habitats (Scott et al.
1997; Shields et al. 2002), and (iii) the land use and flooding
Responsible Editor: Stefan Grab
* Gopal Shankar Singh
gopalsingh.bhu@gmail.com
1
Department of Environment and Sustainable Development,
Institute of Environment & Sustainable Development,
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India
2
Department of Geography, Ravenshaw University,
Cuttack 753003, India