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Application of Geographical Information System (GIS) tools in watershed analysis

Paritosh Gupta and Rajendra M Tamhane
ESRI India New Delhi

Damanjit S Minhas and A K Mookerjee
LEA Associates South Asia Pvt. Ltd.



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.

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