SubCatchment Areas (AIMS)

Catchment areas is a derivative of the watershed model. With the water catchments classification for Afghanistan prepared by FAO, GIS desk work was conducted at AIMS office in Kabul and Mazar-i Sharif to delineate the actual boundaries of the defined watershed and river basins. An initial water catchment maps (river basins and watershed) was produced in early 2003. The boundaries were drawn manually on computer screen using as screen background a DTED elevation model at 500 meters elevation. The work was operated on Arc-View 3.2 software. These initial coarse maps were taken in the field for field verification during extensive agriculture field surveys organized by FAO in 2003. Revisions and fine-tuning of the maps were made based on field observations and with the availability in late 2003 of a DTED elevation model at 3 arc degree intervals (100 meters elevation). Also, a number of other available digitized maps and satellite images of Afghanistan were used to fine tune the boundaries. Similar method of delineating boundaries was retained.