Land and water resource management in Bour river watershed using GIS and remote sensing
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Date
2019-06
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Land and water are precious natural resources. Water scarcity is a burning problem for the hill agrarians. The growing population and industrial expansion demand land for food and fodder, have given ascend to challenge the trade on resources of land and water. Water is flattering
deficient resource for the food production for the global population and further bothered by the climate. The areas of rainfed climate are the hotspots of poverty, starvation, land degradation and lack of knowledge. Population, on the other hand, is burgeoning constantly and demanding for more food production under constraints of limited availability of land and water resources. The burden of population driven to the deficiency of natural resources with unscientific usage and improper management practices in last few decades. There is an immediate necessity to keep attention on increasing productivity of land. Land and Water Resources management refers to the judicious use of natural resources such as soil, water, plant and animals, resulting in better quality of life for both present and future generations. With this approach in view, the present study of Bour river watershed of Nainital district of Uttarakhand state in India, was undertaken with the objectives to study land use/land cover changes during the period of 1969-2016; detailed morphometric analysis for hydrologic characteristics and management planning in the watershed; and prioritization of subwatersheds on the basis of morphometric analysis of the river catchment for development and management of land and water resources of the river catchment. QGIS and ArcGIS software were used to prepare different thematic maps of the study area by using toposheets, DEM data and satellite images. The very steep slopes and escarpments were present in majority of study area and were occupied by mainly the forests. Thicker vegetation, in the form of forests, were found on North, North-East and East aspects whereas agricultural activities were prominent on East, South-East, South and West aspects. The areal extent of land use/land cover changes from the years 1969 to 2016 (over 47 years) revealed that the forest area has decreased by 20.151%, whereas, the agricultural land has increased by 12.636% and the builtup/ barren land has increased by 12.636%. The major causes of LULC changes were deforestation,
poor management of terrace agriculture, soil erosion in sloping areas, rapid urbanization, encroachment of forests, unplanned infrastructure development and population pressure. The quantitative analysis of morphometric parameters is of immense importance in watershed prioritization for the purpose of soil and water conservation programmes and natural resources management. The soil conservation measures can first be applied to sub-watersheds SWS2, SWS3, SWS5 and SWS10 and then to the other sub-watersheds depending on their priority. The sub-watershed SWS7 received last priority rank for management. Through the geovisualization technique, the suitable locations for soil and water conservation structures such as farm ponds and check dams were identified. Those can add up in reducing soil erosion and shortages of water availability for various activities in the watershed. From the results it was concluded that morphometric and land use/land cover analysis could be an effective methodology for identifying the critical areas within the watershed for initiating soil and water conservation programme having scientific flavour, in ungauged watersheds.
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