Since the late Cenozoic era, due to the impact of the Indo-Eurasian plate collision and the northeasterward compression of the Tibetan Plateau, a series of extensional sub-basins and tectonic belts have been formed at the periphery of the Ordos block. Watershed geomorphology plays an important role in studying the formation of rock uplift and river erosion, and are recording the surface evidence on landforms evolution. In this paper, twenty-eight sub-basins and tributaries around Daxihe River, locating at the southern margin of Ordos, were extracted from SRTM1 DEM data. Combined with Hack profile and related river parameters, the tectonic and geomorphic morphology were evaluated synthetically. The results show that (1) The mean SL of this area is 93.9, indicating that the tectonic activities are strong in Daxihe River Basin; (2) The SL values of the northern and southern are 58.9 -152 and 66 -137.4, respectively, showing that the uplift rate of eastern margin larger than the southern margin; (3) There are positive power functions between K and drainage area, also between landform relief and slope. This study plays an auxiliary role in regional geological background, structural activity analysis and disaster prediction.This contribution has been peer-reviewed. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-3-W10-967-2020 | © Authors 2020. CC BY 4.0 License. 967This contribution has been peer-reviewed. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-3-W10-967-2020 | © Authors 2020. CC BY 4.0 License.

Abstract. The morphology of watershed is the most intuitive information carrier to reflect regional tectonic activity, surface erosion and morphologic evolution. Active tectonic and fluvial system play a significant role in patterns and characters of regional morphology. Taking twenty-nine tributaries of the upper reaches of the Weihe River as the main study objects, four parameters, such as gully density (GD), basin topography ratio (BTR), roundness ratio (RR), river longitudinal profile fitting exponent (RLPFE), etc., were used to quantitatively analyse the topographic characteristics in this area. To reveal the main cause of the characteristics, the hypsometric integral (HI) were also applied in this area. The results showed that: (1) There is a positive linear function between basin topography ratio (BTR) and mean slope, and the mean values of four indexes in northern channels are smaller than southern channels; (2) The mean HI value is 0.44, indicating that the main topographic characteristics of this area is in maturity, which is in the transitional period of adjustment of the deep erosion and uplift movement; (3) The main cause of this topographic changes is tectonic. These results are consistent with other geological background, and will enrich regional basin morphology research and tectonic activity evaluation, provide important basic data for regional disaster prediction and analysis of soil and water loss.