Improving Water Resources Planning, Operations, and Monitoring using Geospatial Data and Systems

Overview

The National Hydrology Project (NHP) was taken up by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, RD & GR, Govt. of India to improve the extent and accessibility of water resources information and strengthen institutional capacity to enable improved water resources planning and management across India. The focus is on establishing a sound hydrological database and information system and scientific tools for effective planning and management of water resources within each implementing agency.

The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO, is one of the implementing agencies of the NHP, and has taken up eight distinct activities that denote effective utilization of Geospatial technologies in the field of water resources, which are:

1. Real-time Operational Spatial Flood Early Warning System Development 2. Development of Satellite-based Regional Evaporative Flux Monitoring System for India 3. Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) Risk Assessment of Glacial Lakes in the Himalayan Region of Indian

River Basins 4. Development of spatial snowmelt runoff product in the Indian Himalayas 5. Operational National Hydrological Modelling System for the entire Country 6. Satellite data-based inputs for Irrigation Scheduling for a Narayanpur Irrigation Project command area 7. Operational hydrological drought services using remote sensing data 8. Customized RS & GIS Training and Capacity Building

Vision: To improve the extent, quality, and accessibility of water resources information, a decision support system for floods and basin level resource assessment/planning and to strengthen the capacity of targeted water resources professionals and management institutions in India.

Objectives

y To design and develop an open-source web-based GIS portal for facilitating spatial planning at the Gram Panchayat level. y To assist in capacity building of all involved stakeholders so that they can apply the tools for rural development. y To collate multi-thematic content on natural resource management for ease of evaluation, verification, and execution of planning projects.

Stakeholders Involved

Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, RD & GR, Government of India, and State Water Resources Departments.

Solution and Implementation Plan

The project implementation plan was prepared as per the ISO guidelines practised within the NRSC, including information on project management structure, internal and external QC teams, detailed project schedule with milestones, manpower deployment schedule, funds and other infrastructure requirements, necessary software tools, a mechanism for obtaining and handling customer feedback, and so on.

All technical activities have been executed in a phased manner consisting of technique/model development, validation & calibration, real-time simulations, operational implementation & dissemination to stakeholders. Further, the activities were supported by field data collection, field experimentation/ observation equipment, capacity-building training and user awareness workshops.

All geospatial products generated under the project are disseminated through the customized Bhuvan-NHP web geoportal for their use & feedback by various stakeholders.

Use of Geospatial Technologies

All eight activities taken up by NRSC use satellite data-based inputs and derived inputs like DEM for generating water resources information and products. High-resolution and coarse-resolution satellite datasets are used as inputs for activities like an estimation of ET, snowmelt runoff, GLOF risk assessment, irrigation, and hydrological drought. In addition, IoT technologies have also been roped in in conjunction with GPS and allied communication technologies.

Key Outputs

y Flood forecast models and spatial flood early warning models developed for Godavari and Tapi rivers. y Satellite data-based regional ET estimates evaluated for India at spatial scales of watershed/ river-basin/ land cover units and at temporal scales of daily, fortnightly, monthly, and annually.