Introduction
Water, one of the most essential material in day-to-day life is becoming scarce due to various
reasons including reduction in infiltration rates, higher rates of runoff, uneconomical use,
overexploitation of the surface resources etc; as a result of change in land use patterns,
degradation of forest cover and public apathy towards its importance. An understanding of the
complex inter sectoral dynamics would be crucial for developing a holistic approach to the
utilization of water resources. For managing the data at basin level and analysing the data
correlation between the various sectors in the basin, GIS has been found to be an effective tool.
People have varying goals and values relative to use of local land and water resources, which
need to be properly managed.
Watershed Management is an iterative process of integrated decision-making regarding uses
and modifications of lands and waters within a watershed. This process provides a chance for
stakeholders to balance diverse goals and uses for environmental resources, and to consider
how their cumulative actions may affect long-term sustainability of these resources. Watershed
management requires use of the social, ecological, and economic sciences. Common goals for land and water resources must be developed among people of diverse social backgrounds and
values. The decision process must also weigh the economic benefits and costs of alternative
actions, and blend current market dynamics with considerations of long-term sustainability of the
ecosystem.
Methodology and Objectives of the Study
The basic requirement for watershed analysis is the DEM (Digital
Elevation Model). For accuracy and reliability purposes, it is
decided that DEMs will be created with the cell size of 4 m. The
instant problem, which popped up, was the heavy size of the DEM
files if created for each district. Therefore, it was decided to build
the DEMs for the blocks, subdivisions of the district. The 4 m
DEMs are successfully created for all the blocks using
‘Topogridtools’ of ArcInfo workstation. For watershed analysis Arc
Hydro tools are used.
The work has been carried out in the following manner:
- District level resource mapping creation was done using 1:
50,000 Survey of India sheets keeping in view the project
objectives.
- IRS–1D, LISS-III digital satellite data of 23.5 meter resolution
were procured from NRSA, Hyderabad for two seasons (i.e.
Rabi and Kharif cropping seasons) for land cover mapping
and updating the information/data gathered from the base maps generated from 1:50,000
Survey of India sheets.
- Digital Image processing of satellite data using standard software packages was done for
data merging, enhancement of relevant features, digital classification and conversion to
thematic maps bringing the processed data
into GIS environment for water resource
mapping from satellite imagery.
- By combining the remote sensing information with adequate field data, based on the status of water resources development and irrigated areas (through remote sensing), artificial recharge structures such as check dams, nala bunds
etc were recommended upstream of irrigated areas to recharge downstream areas so as to augment groundwater resources.