Land use suitability and impact assessment of soil conservation and water resources development measures in Garhkundar-Dabar Watershed
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Date
2009-07
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Land evaluation is important for the successful crop production. The impacts of soil and water resource development measures have been reviewed. Water stored in the checkdam and the sediment load per annum is needed for management of the reservoir water allocation and thus, required to be assessed. Soil conservation measures decreases the sediment load on check dam, substantially. Keeping these facts in view, present study was conducted to study the land use suitability on the basis of the proximity of land to various resources, viz. water availability, distance from sustainable water resource, village and road proximity and the present land use. The constructed surface water resources, i.e. check dams, were measured for their storage capacity and sediment deposited in their bed for two years. The effectiveness of soil conservation measures in sediment transport reduction was studied. Effect of the construction of the water resources development measures i.e. check dam on ground water level build up in the wells located in nearby fields from the check dams. The watershed selected for the study was Garhkundar-Dabar watershed, Madhya Pradesh. Land suitability analysis showed that the, 5.5 ha area was having highest suitability rank, whereas, 327.78 ha was having least suitability which was about 38.23 percent of the watershed area. The total water storage capacity of nine check dams was found whopping amount of 24102.28 m3, which was substantially higher in the area. This water can be successfully used for irrigation purpose. The sediment load of check dams was estimated and it was found that, three check dams out of nine were found critical for their high sediment load. Most critical checkdam was in the control watershed, where no soil conservation measures were adopted. Two check dams in the Garhkundar-Dabar watershed were found critical for loss of capacity due to silting. The sediment load in checkdam, constructed in the control watershed was about 1.9 times higher, equal to 190.25 m3, than the highest sediment load in soil conservation measures adopted watersheds. The water level in the wells, located in nearby areas of checkdam increased by an average of 2.94 m and maximum up to 6.57 m, over a period of one year, at the end of successful rabi crop in the area. Number of dried up wells was reduced to 13, which was 29 last year, out of 50 wells under consideration.
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