Boundary Data of the Koshi River Basin
Zhang, Y. L.1,2 Wu, X.1,2 Gao, J. G.3 Li, B. Y.1
1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources
Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;
2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3. Texas A & M University, Texas, 76502
Keywords: Koshi River Basin; boundary; Mount
Xixabangma; Mount Qomolangma; Pumqu, Yairuzangbo; Tibet Autonomous Region
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3974/geodp.2022.04.17
CSTR: https://cstr.escience.org.cn/CSTR:20146.14.2022.04.17
Dataset Availability Statement:
The dataset
supporting this paper was published and is accessible through the Digital Journal of
Global Change Data Repository at: https://doi.org/10.3974/geodb.2022.10.03.V1 or
https://cstr.escience.org.cn/CSTR:20146.11.2022.10.03.V1.
Koshi River originates from the Dasuopu Glacier on the north slope
of Xixabangma in the central Himalayas. From the north side of the Himalayas,
it crosses the whole mountain and reaches the Ganges plain in the south. It
crosses China, Nepal and India and is an important tributary of the Ganges
River as well as an important transboundary river in South Asia. The drainage
system of Koshi River basin is mainly composed of three tributaries: Sun Koshi River in the west branch, Arun River in the north branch and Tamor
River in the east branch [1-4]. The Sun Koshi River
originates in Tibet, China (In China it is known as Yairuzangbo), and with a
length of 366 km. Tamor River originates from Mount Kanchenjunga, and with a
length of 191 km. The middle and upper reaches of the Arun River are called
Pumqu in China and originate from Dasuopu Glacier on the north slope of Mount
Xixabangma. The length of the Arun River is 523 km, and the length of the Koshi
River basin is 801 km. The three rivers join to form the Koshi River near
Dhankuta and finally join the Ganges at Katihar in India. The Koshi River rises
north to the Laguigangri mountains, South to the
junction of the Koshi River on the Ganges plain, West to the Kathmandu valley,
east to the New Garira Mountains [2-4]. The Koshi River Basin
located in 85 01'E-88 57'E, 25 20'N-29 09'N, spans three countries: China, Nepal and India. The KRB has
a total area of 87723 km2 and a circumference of 1985 km, the
northern part located in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, covering an area of
29,387 km2, accounting for 33.50% of the total basin area; the
central part located in Nepal, covering an area of 39494 km2,
accounting for 45.02% of the total basin area; the southern part located in
India, covering an area of 18841 km2, accounting for 21.48% of the
total basin area.
The Koshi River
Basin is the basin with the largest elevation drop in the world. Of the world’s
fourteen highest peaks above 8,000 m, six are in the KRB [2-4], such
as Mount Qomolangma, Mount Kanchenjunga (8,586 m) and Mount Lhotse (8516 m),
etc. Among which Qomolangma (8,848.86 m) is the highest point in this basin,
the lowest point is located at the junction of the Koshi River and Ganges rivers, with an elevation of only 33m, the elevation drop
reached 8810 meters in basin. This leads to complete vertical natural zones,
varieties of landscape types, land use forms are abundant and significant
regional differences [4-6].
The Koshi River
basin in China is mainly composed of Pumqu Basin and Yairuzangbo Basin.
Langqiang Co, located in the rain shadow zone of The Himalayas, and Baikuimai
Co and Cuomuzhelin lakes are mainly supplied by precipitation, which were
originally part of Pumqu Basin. As the climate of "rain shadow zone"
became dry and the precipitation decreased, the lake shrank and the lake
surface decreased, and finally closed into three independent inland basins,
Langqiang Co Basin (with an area of 71 km2, a circumference of 40
km), Baikuimai Co Basin (71 km2, 38 km) and Cuomuzhelin Basin (1,067
km2, 181 km). Their original outflow rivers were separated by
accumulation plains. Their original outflow rivers are separated by an
accumulation plain with a residual dry channel, which can be regarded as a
product of climate change and a part of the Koshi River basin.
Figure 1 Koshi River basin
The KRB involves 5
counties in China's Tibet autonomous region, 3 provinces with 27 districts in
Nepal, and 1 state 6 zones with 14 counties in India. The list of administrative
regions in the KRB was shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Administrative regions of Weihe River basin
|
Country
|
State/Province
|
Zone/ City
|
County /District
|
Area (km2)
|
|
China
|
Tibet Autonomous Region
|
Rikaze City
|
Dingjie County, Nyalam county, Kamba County and Sa’gya country (5
Counties)
|
29,387
|
|
Nepal
|
Province NO.1
|
|
Taplejung, Panchthar, Sankhuwashava, Bhojpur, Tehrathum, Dhankuta, Sunsari,
Solukhumbu, Khotang, Okhaldhunga, Udayapur
|
39,495
|
|
Province NO.2
|
|
Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara
|
|
Province NO.3
|
|
Ramechhap, Sindhuli, Sindhupalchowk, Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Kabhrepalanchow,
Makawanpur, Dolakha
|
|
Total (Nepal)
|
3 Provinces
|
|
27 Districts
|
|
India
|
Bihar State
|
Tirhut Zone
|
Muzaffarpur, Purba Champaran,
Sitamarhi, Sheohar
|
18,823
|
|
Darbhanga Zone
|
Darbhanga, Madhubani, Samastipur
|
|
Munger Zone
|
Begusarai, Khagaria
|
|
Purnia Zone
|
Purnia
|
|
Kosi Zone
|
Saharsa
Madhepura
|
|
Bhagalpur Zone
|
Bhagalpur
|
|
Total (India)
|
1 State
|
6 zones
|
14 Counties
|
*From
references [7-8].
The boundary data of the KRB was developed
based on ASTER-DEM with a precision of 30 m×30 m
and Google Earth image to interpret the distribution of river network, the river network and watershed are generated in
ArcGIS software to extract the preliminary results. Then, the Koshi River Basin
boundary was manually revised at the scale of 1:100,000 by referring to Google
Earth image with 10m*10m spatial resolution and DEM data. The boundary of the
Koshi River basin does not include the three inland Basin of Langqiang Co
Basin, Baikuimai Co Basin and Cuomuzhelin Basin when used,
the actual area of Koshi River Basin is 86,539 km2 and a
circumference of 2,134 km. The data is archived in both .kmz and .shp formats
with the compressed data size of 21.9 MB.
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