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ThesisItem Open Access STUDY OF COASTAL MICRO WATERSHEDS NEAR DANDI(Natutal Resorce Management Dept., ACHF, NAU, navsari, 2016-10) Bhanderi, Bhavin N.; Shrivastava, P. K.Land use plan of coastal areas is need of the day when we are planning for improvement of coastal regions as well as to sustain the quality of natural resources, when there are erratic climatic changes taking place due to global warming. To prepare a land use plan, assessment of changes taken place in the land use pattern need to be assessed. The rate of changes will provide information on much needed focus in the form of government investments to sustain and improve the deteriorating situation. Although fish reared in saline water is much in demand among the coastal communities in all coastal areas. Further, industrialization and subsequent water pollution of rivers and streams from the polluted effluent of factories has damaged the coastal eco system as well as affected fish farming in seas. Perhaps to deal with pollution problem in sea water, many aquaculture farms rearing saline water fish have got established in land mass in the coastal villages. Saline water storage in surface areas is bound to have its detrimental effect on sweet water aquifers, which aggravates already scarce situation of quality drinking water. Government investments in five year plans require precise data on demand and supply of natural resources, social, economic, and regional vulnerability to disasters. Monetary allocations are made to the districts by the center and state governments based on such information which percolates to taluka and village or watershed level. For effective execution of plan and money skills of watershed management play a significant role. Further, large amount of field data is mostly either not available or consumes lot of time, money and energy; however, with advent of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) software’s task of planning and evaluation has become easier. Characterization of watershed is an important part for the management as well as evaluation purpose. Monitoring, evaluation and assessment of changes in watersheds over a period of time can help us to rectify the follies committed in the past. Ground truthing and actual field data along with secondary data and remotely sensed data could help in scientific prioritization of watersheds. In the current study micro watersheds near Dandi, located on the Arabian Sea coast, near Navsari city was selected to monitor spatial and temporal changes during the year. The research work focused on “Study of Coastal Micro Watersheds near Dandi’’ to evaluate nine micro watersheds of the watershed 5B2F1C. The study identifies the problem of each micro watershed and attempts to give specific solutions to cope with the problems. The study of different micro watersheds helped to prioritize the micro watersheds in which government investments could be made in the order of its importance for adopting the focused energy for initiating the developmental work for the welfare of coastal communities. The study was taken up with the objectives (i) To characterize selected micro watersheds (ii) to identify major problems of the micro watersheds (iii) to assess land use changes in micro watershed and (iv) to priorities micro watersheds for sustainable use Salient findings obtained while characterization of micro watersheds are as under : Hydrological quality of the micro watersheds, watersheds were characterized under three classifications viz. (1) Linear (2) Relief and (3) Aerial. Stream order (U) was 3 in all the micro watersheds except in 1C1, it was 2. Total stream length (LU) ranged from around 7 to 16 Km in MW – 1C4, whereas mean stream length (Lsm) was 0.589 in 1C8 and highest 1.742 in 1C3. Total streams of all orders were highest “22” in 1C8 and smallest “8” in 1C7. Bifurcation ratio (Rb) was found to be highest “3” in 1C1 and lowest”1.25” in 1C3. Stream length ratio is maximum “4.35” in 1C3 and minimum “1.18” in 1C1 micro watershed. Relief characters like total relief (H), relief ratio (Rh), relative relief (Rp) and ruggedness number Rn) were calculated. Total relief, ranged from 9 to 15 m, higher the relief higher will be the velocity of water. Relief ratio was highest “1.76” in 1C5 and minimum “0.69” in 1C3, higher values indicates steep slope. Ruggedness number of the micro watershed suggests the proneness to erosion, with a value of 24.58, 1C2 micro watershed shows the micro watershed is highest prone to erosion. Aerial characters calculated for micro watersheds were area, perimeter, drainage density, stream frequency, form factor, circulator ratio, elongation ratio, length of overland flow constant channel maintenance fineness ratio. Maximum area”14.33 sqkm” was in micro watershed 1C4 and minimum in “6.84 sqkm” in 1C9, bigger the area higher will be the runoff. Drainage density varies from 0.84 (1C1) to 1.62 (in 1C2).Stream frequency exhibits positive correlation with drainage density values of the catchment indicating the increase in stream population with respect to increase in drainage density. Highest values of Form factor, Circulatory ratio and Elongation ratio were 0.57, 0.85 and 0.86 respectively in micro watershed 1C1, 1C2 and 1C1. Whereas, the lowest values of Form factor, Circulatory ratio and Elongation ratio were 0.20, 0.34 and 0.50 respectively in micro watershed 1C3. Form factor, circulatory ratio and elongation ratios describe the shape of the basin which affects the flow pattern in the watershed. Suitable forest tree species in coastal saline lands, to check bank erosion and to check noise pollution in the above micro watersheds are Temerindus indica, Cocus nucifera, Azardichta indica, Casurina equistifoli , Adensonia digitata, Mangrove Tree species, Ziziphus zuzuba, Acacia nilotica, Prosophis juliflora, Acacia cinegal, Ficus religiosa, Palmyara palm and Pongamia pinnata etc. Brackish water aquaculture is good along the low lying coastal villages, whereas brackish water aquaculture should be avoided where it is possible to harvest rain water and cultivate sweet water fish. All micro watershed need groundwater recharging to combat sea water ingress through sea and / or Purna river According to hydrological characterization, micro watershed 1C8 should get top priority followed by 1C4 and the least priority in 1C1. With respect to availability of water in the form of water bodies and canal water supply, 1C3 requires top priority followed by 1C1, 1C4 and 1C4, whereas 1C8 as least priority. Prioritization on the basis of soil and water parameters 1C7 requires top priority followed by 1C9, whereas 1C5 as least priority. In socio economic category also 1C8 and 1C9 are the top two priorities. Finally, overall priority shows that micro watershed 1C2 needs top priority followed by 1C3, 1C9, 1C8, 1C4, 1C1, 1C7, 1C5 and 1C6 in that order. This prioritization could be used by Government departments, NGO’s and funding agencies while planning and executing projects to fulfill specific mandates.