Water Resources

Irrigation Infrastructure

Irrigation Infrastructure consists of canals, irrigation structures such as regulators, cross-drainage structures, syphon, etc. Comprehensive monitoring of irrigation projects during construction phase is being carried out by Central Water Commission (CWC), MoWR under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) for optimum utilization of resources, speedy and timely completion of projects. High resolution Cartosat satellite data provides inventory of Irrigation Infrastructure and assessment of progress of construction work and also provides synoptic view of progress of construction including critical gaps.

Monitored the construction progress of 103 irrigation projects across 20 states and technology was transferred through Internalization in Central Water Commission, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, GOI. The database and reports are hosted in Bhuvan-SatAIBP. This portal is also enhanced with the development of an easy-to-use customized AIBP-Bhuvan web application for online monitoring of AIBP projects and CWC has monitored 14 AIBP projectsUsing Bhuvan application.

Reservoir Sedimentation

Reservoirs lose their storage capacity due to sedimentation. Periodic assessment of sedimentation rates is essential to ascertain the current reservoir live storage capacity for efficient and productive management of water resources. Conventionally, assessment of sediment deposition in the reservoir is carried out either by inflow-outflow measurement method or by hydrographic survey. Hydrographic survey method is in practice for quite long time in India and elsewhere which is time consuming and costly.

Multi-temporal satellite data have been used as an aid to capacity survey of many reservoirs in a cost and time effective manner in India. While this technique helps in revising capacity table between minimum and maximum draw down level observed in satellite data, loss of dead storage capacity can be obtained only through conventional hydrographic surveys. Reservoir sedimentation surveys of 124 reservoirs of National Action Plan were executed by NRSC /DOS/Others. Similar techniques are being utilized by several State / Central Departments.

Pre-Feasibility Studies of Proposed Irrigation Projects

Satellite data would provide wealth of information for preparation of Pre-Feasibility Reports, Feasibility Reports and Detailed Project Reports in the context of Interlinking of Rivers are River Surveys, Reservoir Capacity Assessment, Reservoir Sedimentation, Submergence Area analysis, Rehabilitation & Reconstruction, Link Alignment, Canal Network Planning, Sites for Online New Storages, Conveyance System, Land irrigability assessment, Ideal Site Selection of Dam, Land Use/Land Cover analysis, Cropping System Analysis and Command Area Survey.

A study was carried out in Ken Betwa River link region to help the finalisation of probable dam sites, potential command areas, submergence areas at varying proposed contour levels. Carto DEM plays an important role in addition to the high-resolution satellite data from Indian Remote Sensing sensors. The high-resolution satellite with stereo imaging capability is providing digital elevation models and multi-spectral information is providing terrain characterization to carry out submergence area analysis identifying the stretches of fertile lands, forests, villages and towns that would submerge and command area analysis to arrive at optimal solutions for efficient water use systems and strategies.

Surface water

Mapping and monitoring of surface water bodies across the country are being monitored with automated water bodies extraction algorithms that were developed to process huge daily acquired satellite data from multiple sensors across the IRS satellites. These algorithms helps to map water bodies information of varying sizes at different time intervals (>50 Ha – fortnight, >2 ha –Monthly, >0.25ha at seasonal time interval). Due to presence of cloud cover, the daily processed data are time-composited is made available.

Sensors onboard Resourcesat 2, Resourcesat 2A are the primary satellites responsible for the generation of surface water bodies information and to host in Bhuvan –WBIS.

Water spread information generated is also used to generate grid-wise (grid size of 5 km x 5 km) water body fraction product for download through Bhuvan-Water Bodies as "National Information System for Climate and Environment Studies (NICES)" database These information data is useful in hydrological modelling, drought assessment, surface water dynamics analysis, etc. available.

This version 2.0 of WBIS has new geospatial tools for (i) graphical visualisation of multi-date water spread area; (ii) regional water spread area analysis, (iii) spatio-temporal visualisation of water spread and (iv) to identify potential water bodies for inland fisheries cultivation.

Snow Cover Mapping and Monitoring

Snow in the Himalayas is a vital water resource to India and the snowmelt runoff occurring mostly during summer months constitute a substantial part of water resources of the river systems like Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra. Snow cover mapping is done using remote sensing data regularly. Snow cover, with relatively high albedo, appears very bright on standard False Colour Composite (FCC) images and is easily differentiated with other land cover features.

The prior information on availability of quantity of snowmelt during critical summer months is essential in planning the reservoir operations. Development of snow melt runoff models, both seasonal (3 months) and short term (16 days), for forecasting during summer months (Apr-May-Jun) in 5 basins (Chenab, Beas, Sutlej, Yamuna and Ganga) is done using remote sensing inputs. During the years 2012 to 2016 seasonal forecast was provided for April to June months by 1st April. Six short term forecasts were provided on time for each 16-day period during April, May and June months of each year.

The satellite derived inputs such as snow cover, snow albedo, snow surface temperature and snow emissivity along with field data was used in computing net radiation. The net radiation forms the basis in estimating snow melt runoff using energy balance method in spatially distributed approach. The basin wise models and necessary data were transferred to CWC along with training support for internalization and usage at their end.

River Engineering

River migration and river control works from the major elements in the flood plain management Satellite data provided accurate delineation of river configuration and the status of flood/river control works.

Most of the flood prone rivers in India change their course frequently after every flood wave attacking strategic locations at different times. Hence it is necessary to understand the behavior of the river and its latest configuration so as to plan the flood control measures effectively. At the same time it is equally important to monitor the existing flood control structures from time to time to avoid breaches in view of the frequent changes in river configuration. Using conventional techniques to collect the information is not cost effective and time effective. Mapping of river configuration and flood control works of river can be mapped using high resolution satellite data. NRSC has been carrying out this activity based on the user needs.

Pre-feasibility of Studies of Hydro-Power Projects

Ranking study of 81 proposed hydropower sites was taken up to demonstrated the potential of technology was in the preliminary ranking study of the 81 proposed hydro- power sites located in Indus River Basin for the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) executed during 2001.

The high-resolution satellite data (IRS 1C/1D PAN+LISS-III merged data) was used to estimate the Land use / Land cover area in the proposed dam submergence area and its immediate environs of hydro-power sites mostly located in inaccessible areas. Also, identification of the infrastructure details like roads, bridges, settlements etc. was carried out. Initial environmental assessment using submergence area statistics covering rehabilitation & relocation aspects and Impact of proposed hydro-electric projects on national Parks and Sanctuaries using proximity analysis was carried out.

Water Resources Information Systems

Development of Water Resources Information Systems is the need of the hour to have unique and seamless database for all the irrigation database in the country. NRSC has contributed for a major project “Generation of Database and Implementation of Web Enabled Water Resources Information System in the Country”: India-WRIS which is a joint venture of the Central Water Commission (CWC).

There are 6 modules - WRIS Info Discovery, WRIS Explorer, WRIS Connect, Share Success Story, Water Resources Planning & Management and Input Data Builder, 12 Main information systems and 35 Sub-information systems, 95 Spatial layers with more than 700 attributes, 5-100 years data. Project have created base of all water resources assets of the country on 1:50,000 scale which are being used all concerned government departments NGO's and other stakeholders who are associated with integrated water resources management.

An exclusive geo-portal "Telangana Water Resources Information System TWRISfor I&CAD. Was developed to enable necessary geospatial information on water resources of the state. This facilitated the collection of hosting of field data with state irrigation department, hosting of legacy and current water resources database that is generated from projects executed at ISRO. Capacity building is being done for the engineers for enabling the use of satellite data for seasonal crop area estimation on a regular basis, impact assessment of development programmes like Mission Bhagirathi, and regular developmental works.