UWaIS: Urban Water body Information System for Targeted Rejuvenation

Overview

The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) Mission aims to ensure that every household has access to a tap with an assured supply of water and a sewerage connection, to increase the amenity value of cities by developing greenery and well-maintained open spaces (e.g., parks) and reduce pollution by switching to public transport or constructing facilities for non-motorized transport (e.g., walking and cycling).

All these outcomes are valued by citizens, particularly women, and indicators and standards have been prescribed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in the form of Service Level Benchmarks (SLBs). The AMRUT Mission spans 500 cities covering all states of India.

As the severity of the water crisis in India increases every year, central and state government agencies are using a variety of resources to tackle the water crisis. This is one of the focus areas of the AMRUT mission, for which the Central and State governments are actively adopting Geospatial technologies supported by various government, private and academic institutions in India.

Vision: To enable the AMRUT Mission States to realise the status of water resources and thereafter target their rejuvenation using advanced technologies.

Objective

To provide web-based geospatial information support on water bodies in and around towns/cities in the country for their sustainability, rejuvenation, and creation of lung spaces and to reduce urban floods.

Stakeholders Involved

Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Govt. of India, State Governments, AMRUT Cities, National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC). Solution and Implementation Plan

The project was implemented in two phases:

y Visualization

Æ Preparing an overview of water bodies in each town

Æ Evaluating water spread dynamics of each water body

Æ Calculating water availability in months

Æ Evaluating LU/LC dynamics of 2-3 shortlisted water bodies in each town y Query Module – Prioritizing water bodies for rejuvenation based on the following selection criteria:

Æ Area of water body between 3 to 10 ha or greater than 10 ha

Æ Proximity to Town Centre set at 1 to 20 km radius

Æ Number of months water availability between 7 to 8 months

Æ Maximum water spread area of 10% to 90%. Use of Geospatial Technologies

The Urban Water body Information System (UWaIS) under AMRUT 2.0 is being developed using IRS LISS-IV ortho-rectified satellite data.

Key Outputs

Uwais will enable States to realise the status of waterbodies and thereafter target its rejuvenation. Uwais will also allow ULBs to download a dossier ‘Know Your Waterbody’ which is available on the AMRUT 2.0 City page. Outcomes Achieved and Linkage to SDGs

1. Water bodies Inventory: Number of water bodies and water body size distribution in each Town/State (Water bodies of more than 1 ha size, from NRSC’s existing Water body Information System - WBIS, https:// bhuvan-wbis.nrsc.gov.in) 2. Water spread area dynamics: Fortnightly /Monthly water spread area of each water body (2012 to date from WBIS) 3. Sustainable water bodies: Water availability in the water bodies each year 4. Land use/Land cover (LU/LC) dynamics: LU/LC dynamics using high-resolution satellite data for shortlisted water bodies.