by Tushaar Shah, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC/International Water Management Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2009, x + 310 pp., cloth, $49.95 (ISBN 978‐1‐933‐115‐60‐3). Shah begins by sa...

Taming the Anarchy: Groundwater Governance in South Asia

Satellite based remote sensing technology has proven to be an effectual tool in analysis of drainage networks, study of surface morphological features and their correlation with groundwater management prospect at basin level. The present study highlights the effectiveness and advantage of remote sensing and GIS-based analysis for quantitative and qualitative assessment of flood plain region of lower Kosi river basin based on morphometric analysis. In this study, ASTER DEM is used to extract the vital hydrological parameters of lower Kosi river basin in ARC GIS software. Morphometric parameters, e.g., stream order, stream length, bifurcation ratio, drainage density, drainage frequency, drainage texture, form factor, circularity ratio, elongation ratio, etc., have been calculated for the Kosi basin and their hydrological inferences were discussed. Most of the morphometric parameters such as bifurcation ratio, drainage density, drainage frequency, drainage texture concluded that basin has good prospect for water management program for various purposes and also generated data base that can provide scientific information for site selection of water-harvesting structures and flood management activities in the basin. Land use land cover (LULC) of the basin were also prepared from Landsat data of 2005, 2010 and 2015 to assess the change in dynamic of the basin and these layers are very noteworthy for further watershed prioritization.

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Hydrological inferences through morphometric analysis of lower Kosi river basin of India for water resource management based on remote sensing data

Land use/land cover (LULC) change occurs due to natural and anthropogenic causes In developing countries, rapid industrialization and urbanization imposes a major threat to natural environment Pr

Monitoring land use changes associated with urbanization: An object based image analysis approach

The sub-watershed prioritization is the ranking of different areas of a river basin according to their need to proper planning and management of soil and water resources. Decision makers should optimally allocate the investments to critical sub-watersheds in an economically effective and technically efficient manner. Hence, this study aimed at developing a user-friendly geographic information system (GIS) tool, Sub-Watershed Prioritization Tool (SWPT), using the Python programming language to decrease any possible uncertainty. It used geospatial–statistical techniques for analyzing morphometric and topo-hydrological factors and automatically identifying critical and priority sub-watersheds. In order to assess the capability and reliability of the SWPT tool, it was successfully applied in a watershed in the Golestan Province, Northern Iran. Historical records of flood and landslide events indicated that the SWPT correctly recognized critical sub-watersheds. It provided a cost-effective approach for prioritization of sub-watersheds. Therefore, the SWPT is practically applicable and replicable to other regions where gauge data is not available for each sub-watershed.

https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/139404/1/1-s2.0-S1674987119300763-main.pdf

SWPT: An automated GIS-based tool for prioritization of sub-watersheds based on morphometric and topo-hydrological factors

Sedimentation of water bodies is governed by the erosional processes occurring at the watershed level In this research, a method is proposed for assessing the sediment yield of the mountainous watersheds surrounding the Wular lake in Kashmir Himalaya, using geoinformatics and geostatistics This method is empirical and semi-quantitative in approach and takes into account the weightage-based influence of the parameters governing the watershed sediment yield The results of this study reveal that out of the six surrounding watersheds of the Wular Lake, Madhumati watershed with the highest sediment yield index, SYI (3978) drains maximum sediments into the Lake followed by Arin (3927), Ferozpur (3430), Wular II (3253), Wular I (2465) and Gundar (2343) in the event of a same intensity storm The proposed method is reasonably a better approach in the data-scarce Himalayan region and shall be a useful tool for watershed management in other regions with similar geographic setting

Geoinformatics based approach for estimating the sediment yield of the mountainous watersheds in Kashmir Himalaya, India

Various drainage morphometric parameters in the Upper Bhima river basin and its influence on hydrological processes (e.g. runoff, peak flow, time to peak, infiltration, overland flow, etc.) were discussed using geographical information system (GIS) and remote sensing techniques. Survey of India topographical maps and ASTER digital elevation model was incorporated for thematic database generation and morphometric parameter evaluation in GIS environment. The whole study basin was divided into 8 sub-basins so that the spatial variation of morphological parameters and its influence on hydrology could be analyzed. The interrelationship between morphometric variables were computed (p < 0.05) and presented in a correlation matrix. The study revealed that mean basin slope (), drainage density (), length of overland flow () and basin relief () are closely associated and significantly related with a large number of morphometric variables. Due to close proximity of Western Ghats, sub-basins 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 are high...

GIS based drainage morphometry and its influence on hydrology in parts of Western Ghats region, Maharashtra, India

Water stress during crop cultivation due to inconsistent rainfall is a common phenomenon in maize growing area of Shanmuganadi watershed, located in the semi-arid region of southern peninsular India. The objective is to estimate the supplementary irrigation required to improve the crop productivity during water stress period. Spatial hydrological model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool, has been applied to simulate the watershed hydrology and crop growth for rabi season (October–February) considering the rainfed and irrigated scenarios. The average water stress days of rainfed maize was 60 days with yield of 1.6 t/ha. Irrigated maize with supplementary irrigation of 93–126 mm was resulted in improved yield of 3.8 t/ha with 28 water stress days. The results also suggest that supplemental irrigation can be obtained from groundwater reserves and by adopting early sowing strategy can provide opportunities for improving water productivity in rainfed farming.

Assessing the supplementary irrigation for improving crop productivity in water stress region using spatial hydrological model

The Pedda vagu and Ookachetti vagu watersheds located in the semi-arid regions of Mahabubnagar district are highly dependent on groundwater for irrigation owing to unreliable rainfall and over extraction of groundwater. The present study has been conducted to identify spatio-temporal groundwater droughts and drought-prone zones. Temporal groundwater droughts have been determined using a standardized water-level index along with spatial groundwater droughts using spline interpolation in Geographic Information Systems. The study shows that the groundwater droughts varied among the stations during the observation period, i.e. 1998–2011. However, the spatial assessment shows that the region as such experienced more mild groundwater droughts except during severe meteorological drought years (1998, 2002, 2004 and 2008); this indicates that the region has good scope for groundwater exploitation during dry spells and initial stages of droughts. Therefore, it is critical to have plans for the development of ground...

R. Nagarajan

Papers

GIS based drainage morphometry and its influence on hydrology in parts of Western Ghats region, Maharashtra, India

Assessing the supplementary irrigation for improving crop productivity in water stress region using spatial hydrological model

Identification of groundwater drought prone zones in Pedda vagu and Ookachetti vagu watersheds, tributaries of the Krishna River, India