1.
3 Relief, drainage and
hydro meteorological
hazards
Topography is a configuration of a land surface including its relief, the
distribution of mountains and valleys, the patterns of rivers, and all
other natural features that produce the landscape.
'Relief' is the term geographers use to describe the
shape of the land, including the height and steepness
• Drainage pattern is the pattern formed by the streams, rivers, and
lakes in a particular drainage basin. They are governed by the
topography of the land.
• The drainage pattern resembling the branches of a tree is known as
“dendritic” such as ‘The Indus’.
• Dendritic drainage systems are not straight. In a dendritic system,
there are many contributing streams which are then joined together
into the tributaries of the main river .
• The dendritic pattern develops where the river channel follows the
slope of the terrain.
Topography of N.Mountains
• Sharp edges ridges
• steep slopes
• thin soil (slopes) thick soil(valleys)
• Scree a mass of small loose stones that form or cover a slope on a
mountain Glacier
• Snow capped peaks
• snowfield land covered with permanent snow
• Plucking erosional process, glaciers on high mountains, plucks and
pull surface rocks.
• abrasion erosional process done by glaciers on high mountains, wears
down or rubs away surface rocks
Natural drainage of Northern Mountains
• Fast flowing rivers
• Main river Indus ( starts from Mansrowar lake in Tibet)
• Indus river tributaries, shyok, gilgit and shigar rivers
• Drainage features. Gorges, waterfalls, rapids, streams.
Western Mountains
• This region consists of the mountain ranges, namely; the Waziristan
hills, the Safed Koh range, the Sulaiman range and the Kirthar range.
Topography
• All of these ranges run in the North-South direction except the Safed
Koh, which runs from East to West. The Safed Koh mountain range is
the only range, which has some existing snowcapped peaks. Other
ranges are quite dry. These mountains generally have bare rocks due
to low rainfall and in some cases very high temperatures (which leads
to high rates of evaporation). These mountain ranges have steep
sided peaks along with deep narrow valleys and gorges.
• Drainage
• The Safed Koh range is drained by River Kabul, which runs in West to East
direction and eventually joins River Indus.
• The Waziristan hills are drained by small seasonal rivers like Kurram, Tochi
and Gomal. These rivers run from West to East, and all are the Western
tributaries of the River Indus.
• The Sulaiman range is drained by small seasonal rivers such as the Bolan.
These rivers usually lead to small inland lakes,
• The Kirthar range on the other hand is drained by the River Hab (seasonal
river),which flows in a North to South direction and eventually joins the
Arabian Sea.
• State any 2 western tributaries of river indus (2)
• State from where river indus originates? (1)
Climatic Characteristics & Lifestyle
of the people:
• Winters are extremely cold and long while summers are from mild to hot and
short.
• During winters temperature falls and persists below freezing point while during
summer the temperature goes to 20 degree Celsius.
• Monsoon winds cause rainfall during summers while the western depressions
cause rainfall at lower altitude and snowfall at higher at higher altitude during
winters.
• Relief rainfall also experienced here.
• From alpine forest at higher altitude to coniferous forests at relatively lower
altitude are found.
• Extreme cold winters makes the life of the local people very difficult.
• Nomadic and semi nomadic lifestyle is common at higher altitude.
• Animal rearing is the main profession of the nomadic people.
• Transhumance is practiced along the higher altitude areas.
• Terrace farming is practiced at higher areas.
• During the extreme cold winters the local people remain in their houses & in
• house cottage industry of carpet making becomes the dominant profession.
• Agriculture is also practiced on limited scale.
• Mineral deposits are also found along the western mountains areas of this
division.
Indus Plain
• Divided into three
• a) Upper Indus Plain (UIP) Attock to Mithankot
• b) Lower Indus Plain (LIP) Mithenkot to Indus delta
• c) Delta plain
Natural topography of Upper Indus Plain
• The upper Indus Plain is characterized by flat land and consists of alluvial soil.
• It has active flood plains as well as old flood plains and doabs.
• This way agriculture is present
• The upper Indus plain is drained by Eastern tributaries of the river Indus:
• Jehlum, Chenab, Sutlej, Ravi and Beas. These join at Panjand which flows for 72
km till it joins Indus at Mithankot. It is 1.4km wide.
• Flat land, few low hills, Quartzite/slate hills, thick soil (alluvium), Doabs. Sub
features e.g Bluff/scarp, alluvial terrace/bar upland or bars, Piedmont plains on
foothills of Siwaliks between Jhelum and Chenab.
LOWER INDUS PLAIN.
Natural topography
• Lower Indus Plain is categorized by alluvial soils that are located at a
lower height.
• Doabs are rarely found in this region.
• There are limestone Hills located here giving birth to construction
industries.
• In this plain, the Indus river flows along with a width of 1.6 km and it
does this very slowly depositing some sediments.
• There are no tributaries but distributries
• Flat land
• gentle slope,
• alluvium soil
• few low hills, Limestone hills / custas,
• rolling and dunes in arid part,
• AFP and OFP
• piedmont plains of River indus on foothills of Suleiman and Kirthar
ranges.
• A flood plain is a wide area of flat, low-lying land either side of a river
channel. It is formed by meanders migrating downstream and is
composed of alluvium deposited by repeated flooding..
• Repeated flooding results in the accumulation of the coarse silt next
to the river, forming a natural embankment known as a levee.
• Active flood plains.
Sub features
• Levees, Braided channels, Dry channels, Ox-bow
lakes, Meanders
• Old flood plain
Sub features
• Abandoned channels, remains of ox-bow lakes, Scars of meanders
Climatic characteristics and lifestyle
• Summers are hot and long while winters are from cool to cold and
short.
• Summer temperature goes into 30 to 40 degree Celsius while winter
temperature at some places falls down to 10 to 5 degree celcius and
sometimes even below.
• Monsoon winds cause rainfall in the upper Indus plain during
summers while depressions cause rainfall in the northern Punjab
during winters.
• Convectional currents also cause rainfall at different times of the year
in different areas of the low land zone.
• Large agricultural plains are found and huge agricultural products are
produced.
• This climate zone is fully developed & all the facilities including
transport. Power generation, communication are fully developed.
• Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, sukhur,
Rohri etc, is some of the places of the low land zone.
• Deltas
A delta is a low-lying area of land formed at the mouth of a river where
the stream loses velocity and drops part of its sediment load.
Characteristics of Indus delta
coastline
• Indus River Delta is located in the south of Thatta.
• It is a landform which includes sediments at the mouth of the river. It
is formed when Distributaries form as the river channel splits into
smaller channels now the river loses its velocity and does not have
enough power to carry sediments.
• It deposits the heavier materials and sediments first & the finer,
lighter ones at Last. Thus it is built up in layers.
• Extensive area/ approximately 41,440 km2 of flat land due to river
deposition of sediment as the river losses velocity.
• There are extensive mangrove forests growing in the inter-tidal zone
• The Indus Delta used to flood regularly after the monsoon rains,
however since the 1940’s large scale irrigation schemes on the River
Indus have reduced the amount of water and sediment reaching the
delta therefore the delta has decreased in size.
Explain one reason for the formation of the Indus Delta. (3)
• The River Indus transports large volumes of sediment due to fluvial
erosion . The river's energy is reduced as it flows into the Arabian
Sea . This causes sediment (load) to be deposited and build up over
time to form the delta
