Application of GIS and RS for Integrated Watershed Management

Community, in the policy context, is defined on the basis of fixed in place socio-political unit having residential proximity to the resource or according to state recognized political units. With the boundaries drawn at the village level and the custodial rights of the common lands vested with various departments of the state, it is difficult on the part of the communities to manage such resources. With the advent of participatory forest management powers have been devolved to the communities for protection and use of the resources. Apart from the institutions at the village level, many of the discussions in recent times have focused on the need for nested institutions at various levels to help conserve and protect large landscapes. The need for nested institutions emerges to resolve conflicts and work towards reshaping the boundaries to establish stable governance of the resource. Despite the regulated use of the resources by community institutions, the resources have tended to ge...

Nowadays, daily life intensively depends on public services. Increasing population and urbanization take humans away from environment which may lead to chaos in usage of city lands. Consequently, human is in trouble using public services and facilities including green spaces. Isfahan, one of the metropolitans, has 18 m2 green spaces per person while City Park of district 8 is of inappropriate distribution with regard to population density. To create a localization map of civil park, Isfahan district 8 has been selected. The selected district delimits to Baharestan in north and to Kaveh street in west and to Shahid Forouqi in south and to Emam Komeini street in west-south. Finally, GIS has been used to create given layers and calculate weights based on AHP. According to overlap between layers, the most appropriate places have been identified.

This paper focuses on a sub-watershed within a major watershed that is home to almost one-third of the country’s population.  The watershed area is characterized by being highly vulnerable to flooding during heavy rains, particularly during the hurricane season. The objective of this paper is to formulate policy recommendations that will assist in reducing population vulnerability to flooding and improve/maintain the health of the watershed.

Both theoretical and empirical literature exists that documents the link between short-term interest rate volatility and interest rate levels. This study sought to establish the link between the level of interest and the volatility of interest rates in Kenya using the Treasury bill rates from January 1995 to December 2014. The main variable for the study was the short term interest rate series. In Kenya, this is the Central Bank three month Treasury bill rate. The interest rate volatility was studied using the general specification for the stochastic behavior of interest rates which is tested in a Stochastic Differential Equation (SDE) for the instantaneous risk free rate of interest as earlier defined by Chan et al. (1992). The study applied the monthly
averages of the 91-day T-BILL rate for the period between January 1995 and December 2014 which were obtained from the Central Bank of Kenya. The results of the study were consistent with the hypothesis that the volatility is positively correlated with the level of the short term interest rate as documented by previous empirical studies. The key findings revealed that there exists a link between the level of short-term interest rates and volatility of interest rates in Kenya. Secondly, the findings revealed that the GARCH model is better suited for Modelling volatility for short term interest rates in Kenya as opposed to ARCH model. The study further establishes that GARCH models are able to capture the very important volatility clustering phenomena that has been documented in many financial time series, including short-term interest rates.

Abstract: A physically-based model namely the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used on the Roodan watershed in southern part of Iran; the watershed has an area of 10570 km 2 . The main objectives were to simulate monthly discharge and evaluate the base and peak flows separately. Required parameters to run the model were meteorological data, soil type, land use, management practices and topography maps at watershed scale. To find the sensitive parameters, an initial sensitivity analysis was performed using the Latin Hypercube sampling One-at-ATime (LH-OAT) method embedded in the SWAT model. Then, the model was calibrated and validated for stream flow using the SWAT-CUP program. Generally, the model was assessed using the modified coefficient of determination (bR 2 ), Nash-Sutcliffe (NS) and PBIAS. Values of bR 2 and NS were 0.93 and 0.92 for calibration respectively and 0.69 and 0.83, respectively, for validation. For calibration and validation, PBIAS were obtained at 23 and 5%,...

In the last few years a participatory watershed program is being implemented in the state of Andhra Pradesh. At present, the Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihoods
Project (APRLP) seeks to scale up the ongoing watershed program activities in the state by providing support in the areas of capacity building, livelihood support, and the provision of other schemes and services to the persons and organizations involved. This article is the outcome of the writer’s field work in Andhra Pradesh. Using a livelihoods approach, the author reveals that the lives of marginal communities have radically changed as a result of the introduction of watershed programs in the drought-prone areas of this region.

The development of an urban region by proper planning using conventional methods takes lot of time. Instead of using conventional methods the urban planners found Geospatial technologies as an alternate for quick planning and development of urban resources. Geospatial technologies can encompass huge data which can be edited, retrieved, analyzed and they are also cost effective. The satellite remote sensing data is cheaper, more timely and available over larger areas than traditional sources of information. GIS is the primary analytical platform for spatial planning. GIS provides a provision for extraction of various types of features, multilayered integration of data with which analysis can be done easily in short span. The land use and land cover is the primary structure taken into consideration for planning or developing an urban region. It can be determined by utilizing geospatial technologies such as Geographic Information System and Satellite remote Sensing. Spatial information of land use and land cover aids in determining the urban facilities along with its location and also where people live. Simultaneously it also shows the lack of facilities in the urban region. By knowing the types of urban facilities present, absent spatially and where people live the optimum planning of urban resources can be achieved. The Nalgonda town is chosen as a study area to develop industrial zones, recreational facilities, heritage tourism and IT companies. So the effective and efficient development of urban region using Geospatial Technologies is highly required. Nalgonda town is the headquarters of the Nalgonda District of Telangana State. Nalgonda town lies at coordinates 17.050°N latitude and 79.2667°E longitude. This paper gives an overview of land use and land cover of nalgonda town attributed with major structures, play grounds, parks, Halls, water bodies and vegetation cover. This in turn infers the lack of facilities. It also envisages about the proper planning of urban resources.

Reclaimed water from small wastewater treatment facilities in the rural areas of the Beira Interior region (Portugal) may constitute an alternative water source for aquifer recharge. A 21-month monitoring period in a constructed wetland treatment system has shown that 21,500 m3 year−1 of treated wastewater
(reclaimed water) could be used for aquifer recharge. A GIS-based multi-criteria analysis was performed, combining ten thematic maps and economic, environmental and technical criteria, in order to produce a suitability map for the location of sites for reclaimed water infiltration. The areas chosen for aquifer
recharge with infiltration basins are mainly composed of anthrosol with more than 1 m deep and fine sand texture, which allows an average infiltration velocity of up to 1 m d−1. These characteristics will provide a final polishing treatment of the reclaimed water after infiltration (soil aquifer treatment (SAT)),
suitable for the removal of the residual load (trace organics, nutrients, heavy metals and pathogens).
The risk of groundwater contamination is low since the water table in the anthrosol areas ranges from 10 m to 50 m. On the other hand, these depths allow a guaranteed unsaturated area suitable for SAT. An area of 13,944 ha was selected for study, but only 1607 ha are suitable for reclaimed water infiltration.
Approximately 1280 m2 were considered enough to set up 4 infiltration basins to work in flooding and
drying cycles.

This study examined the influence of landscape features on stream nutrient concentrations within the Ichawaynochaway Creek watershed in southwestern Georgia. Baseflow concentrations of both dissolved (SRP, NO3, NH4) and total (TN, TP) nutrients were measured at 17 sampling sites monthly for a period of six months (July 2012 to January 2013). A long-term dataset (January 2008 to March 2012) was also analyzed for baseflow/stormflow comparisons of dissolved nutrient concentrations. Relationships among land-use, geology, soils, physiographic features and nutrients were analyzed at both the subwatershed and riparian corridor scales. SRP concentrations were lower and NO3 concentrations higher than reported in previous studies of the region. Due to dry conditions during the sampling period, nutrient input was likely limited to groundwater contributions and land-use effects were minimal. Trends among water quality variables varied between the upper and lower portions of the watershed, suggesting differences in nutrient transport pathways due to spatial variation.

Google Earth Engine (GEE) is a cloud centered platform for temporal and spatial geoprocessing and analysis on global challenges that require more computation power and involve large geospatial datasets. In GEE, the user analyses are automatically parallelized to make use of the computers housed in Google data centers. Moreover, GEE comes with a massive data catalog of 40 years of historical and current remotely sensed imageries (e.g., MODIS, Landsat) and other data. This data archive is constantly updated with the acquisition of new images. GEE also allows users to do spatial and temporal analyses based on their own data (e.g., vector, raster) that are exported into GEE data catalog. The exported data can be kept private or made available for other users of GEE.

To facilitate the users, such as academicians and scientists, and to script more complex analysis, the functionality of GEE is exposed through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for JavaScript and Python.

Kulekhani watershed is a nationally important watershed because it is the catchment area of Kulekhani hydroelectric project; a power back up of electricity of Nepal. In recent years, it has reported that human accelerated soil erosion has increased in its Reservoir. Winrock-Nepal had facilitated for sharing hydropower royalty to initiate PES in 2003 for upstream conservation but present scenario shows that it could not achieve intended ecological and social outcomes. This study attempts to estimate soil erosion and carry feasibility study for payment for sediment retention in kulekhani watershed.
Experts view and literature review were done to find research problem and primary data were collected via household questionnaire survey, key informant survey, direct observation, group discussion and transect walk with stratified random sampling. Research reports, previous studies and online materials were used as secondary data.GIS/RS tools were used to analyze land use patterns.  Major sediment contributing sector were cultivated land 32.24%, riverbank erosions 41.64%, sediment production from rural roads 16.08% and other landslides 8%.Erosion in cultivated land in early monsoon was serious problem both  from sediment yield and productivity conservation perspective. About 10% of precipitation caused 60% of soil loss in pre-monsoon of1997. SALT-IV model tested in Tistung trail plot were found to be effective technology for reducing about 57% of erosion in a low cost technology. Communities were found interested in adapting this technology and considerable percentage (42%) of cost were willing to pay for it.
Problems of landslides, flash floods and debris flows were more severe in sub watershed of high drainage density & granite dominance sub watersheds such as Tasar, Kiniti-Rupse and Khaiti-Gharti. Gully erosions were more severe in alluvial deposited and cultivated areas. Land use over three and half decades shows that forest area was initially decreased  from 1978 to  1992 and then in increasing trend and stable in recent years whereas past records of cultivated land was vice versa. Original high rate of sediment deposition rate in reservoir were reduced correlating these phenomena but despite the fact rate of erosion is increasing recent years indicating that watershed management initiatives were effective in sediment reduction in past and recent years accelerated soil erosion is related to other factors such as unprotected development activities & farming etc.
It was estimated that soil erosion were 2-230(average84.86) t/ha/y, 0.2-4.3(average2) t/ha/y, 0.2-10.85(average4.87) t/ha/y from cultivated land, forest land and shrub land consequently. The total of 24, 92, 014.26 m3 soil erosion is taking place annually from the watershed area. If we managed the watershed area and introduced on farm conservation in cultivated land we can reduce it up to 50% (12, 98, 997.04m3/y). Average cost for on farm conservation using low cost technique (excluding external material) per unit hectare was found to be 91476.81 where communities are willing to pay average 42%.Soil erosion problems and management regime were categorized into pre-monsoon erosion, sheet rill erosion and gulley/landslide/bank erosion .The average extra cost/hectare for treatment of cultivated land suffered by pre-monsoon erosion, sheet rill erosion and gulley/landslide/bank erosion under low cost technique(excluding external material) was Nrs. 38,693.99, 72,885 and 40,747.97. It was also calculated that productive value of land per/ha was Nrs. 2, 40,263.38.
It was estimated that about 7, 79,398.20 M3  soil would be prevented from entering the reservoir and water saved from displacement would generate 15,18,000.0 kWh of energy which gives NRs. 1, 06, 26,000 revenue per hour (at discharge rate of 13.1m3/s and at an average price of NRs. 7 per kWh) if watershed is managed . Comparing investment needed for upstream cultivated land, it needs an estimated investment of 23, 26, 90,067/y in low cost method (excluding external material)which is approximately equal to possible revenue of one day of NEA.

Assignment Works:
- Collection, review and evaluation of records, data and information on meteorology and hydrology for analysis and forecasting of future climatic and hydrological parameters;
- Identification of important environmental events of significance to the Bago Watershed and its hydrology; and
- Analyses and Forecasting of future climatic/hydrologic scenarios over the Bago River Watershed.

The interpretation of “the Myth of the Abduction of Europa” and of the archaeogeography of the Messara region is based on approach of geomythology. More precisely, in the way with which myths are connected with the ancient context in order to reveal the relationship between the myths (i.e. the structure of religions) that the ancient inhabitants of each locale devised and the geo-environment in which they lived, inhabited and developed their culture. The geo-environment does not remain the same, but constantly changes. The restoration of Messara’s geo-environment from ancient times till today, on the one hand provides an alternative perspective of “the Myth of the Abduction of Europa” and on the other hand allows an understanding of the religious faith of the Minoans.
The dam constructed at the entrance of the ancient gorge of Messara was filled with the water of Geropotamos river and resulted in the creation of the “Great Sacred Lake”. Careful observation of the Messara landscape from a hill in the city of Festos reveals Psyloritis mountain laying towards the north which, when covered in snow resembles a white bull with small white horns, the “Great Sacred Lake” extending to the east and the majestic Asterousia Mountains with Kofinas (the Starlight) appearing to the south – southwest. These elements allow the demarcation of the sacred landscape of Messara into the bronze era and therefore provide an alternative reading of the “Myth of the Abduction of Europa” within this context. The dominance of the Minoans in the sea, resulted in the gradual spreading of the myth and consequently, of the name of Goddess Europa. Throughout the centuries and although the semantics changed, the name continued to spread, evolved to the name Europe and to today’s Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(consort_of_Zeus)

The effectiveness of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) for the purification of
sewage was investigated. The study was carried out in the Department of Agricultural
and Biosystems Engineering. Three treatments of water hyacinth replicated two times
were used in the study. These treatments include no water hyacinth (control), 1kg and
2kg water hyacinth plant density cultures. The system was designed based on Completely
Randomized Design (CRD). Sewage samples were collected during the growth of water
hyacinth. Purification of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) on sewage was rapid
during the first three weeks in the sewage cultured with water hyacinth (especially 2kg
water hyacinth plant density) and there was low absorption in nutrients in the last two
weeks when attaining maturity. Parameters such as Cl-, Fe, Cu, Mn, Pb, K, F-, Nitrate and
Sulphate were drastically reduced from 9mg/l to 3.33mg/l, 1.25mg/l to 0.36mg/l, 0.3mg/l
to 0 mg/l, 0.5mg/l to 0.08mg/l, 0.2mg/l to 0.01mg/l, 1.7mg/l to 0.17mg/l, 0.7 mg/l to
0.08mg/l, 8.6mg/l to 0.03mg/l, 17.5mg/l to 6.20mg/l respectively throughout the course
of the study. The purification by water hyacinth had no effect on the bacteriological
parameters (Agar count, E-coli, Coliform). Also, the 2kg water hyacinth plant density
cultured in the sewage purifies more compared to the 1kg water hyacinth plant density
which is moderate and minimal in the control treatment. One way analysis of variance
was used to compare the means of the parameters tested. It shows that parameters like
CO2, Mn, lead and sodium have significant difference between the control treatment with
both the 1kg and 2kg water hyacinth plant density culture while parameters like pH,
magnesium hardness, calcium hardness and calcium total have no significant difference
between the no water hyacinth culture( control) with the 1kg and 2kg water hyacinth
plant density culture. Finally, sewage parameters like BOD, COD, dissolved oxygen, Cu,
F-, nitrate, phosphate, potassium, dissolved solids, suspended solids, sulphate, iron, Cl-
and magnesium total were not affected.

Offshore islands are potentially exposed to climate induced hazards than adjacent areas with a coastal setting. Vulnerability to hazards, being induced by climate change, may differ due to the prevailing terrain condition of these islands (i.e., physical condition). Hence, the current study is intended to construct an index in GIS platform to ascertain shoreline vulnerability due to climate induced hazards for instance, cyclone, storm surge, sea level change etc. along the Sandwip Island of Bangladesh. To accomplish the research objective, the present study has employed six influential parameters viz., geomorphology; coastal slope; shoreline change rate; rate of sea level change; mean tide range and bathymetry to construct a shoreline vulnerability index. The entire shoreline (~62 km) of Sandwip Island is categorized as very low, low, moderate, high and very high classes by means of a grid-based calculation in geospatial environment. The study outcome reveals that ~6.64% to ~20.89% of the shorelinefalls under very high vulnerability class; ~16.13% to ~21.54% in high; ~16.03% to ~21.35% in moderate; ~25.80% to ~38.57% in low and ~10.57% to ~23.50% in very low vulnerability class. The final result shows that shorelines adjacent to Bauria and Haramia, and the eastern part of Magdhara union are most vulnerable, whilst shorelines adjacent to Santoshpur and Kalapania unions show moderate to high vulnerability index. Other unions, except Amanullah reveals low to very low vulnerability. Addressing vulnerable shorelines may aid in prioritizing risk reduction approaches by local policy makers to combat adverse situation due to climate change in the long run.

Nowadays, daily life intensively depends on public services. Increasing population and urbanization take humans away from environment which may lead to chaos in usage of city lands. Consequently, human is in trouble using public services and facilities including green spaces. Isfahan, one of the metropolitans, has 18 m2 green spaces per person while city park of district 8 is of inappropriate distribution with regard to population density. The current study is aimed to localize a suitable place for city park which focuses on such criteria as:  To be close to street  To be close to residential centers  To be far away from the existing parks  Tobe close to cultural and educational centers  To be close to parking lot Finally, GIS has been used to create given layers and calculate weights based on AHP. According to overlap between layers, the most appropriate places have been identified: 1. In Marchin district which is of the area of 16 m2 2. In Bariman district which is of the area of 29 m2 3. In Imam Komeini street which is of the area of 17 m2 4. In Jaber Ansari street which is of the area of 23 m2 Keywords: City Park, Geographical Information System (GIS), AHP, Localization, District 8 of Isfahan

Assignment Works:
- Collection, review and evaluation of satellite images from various sources;
- Processing (spectral and spatial rectification) of satellite images over the Bago River Watershed and its vicinities;
- Analyses, terrain modeling, and measurement of various land cover types in the Bago River Watershed.

In this study, a Geo-Spatial approach has been utilized for identification of suitable sites for water harvesting in Karabayyanahalli sub-watershed. Based on the integrated use of remote sensing and GIS ideal sites for check dam have been developed for potential runoff harvesting.  Satellite products such as CartoDEM (30 m spatial resolution) and IRS LISS III 1C/D and P6 (24 m spatial resolution) were utilised to map the thematic layer in Arc GIS environment. Survey of India topographic maps (57 B/8, 1:500000) and Google Earth maps are also utilized for the study. All the thematic layers are assigned weightage depending on the capacity of infiltration and runoff characteristics. Then all the layers are integrated one by one and separated the final weightage to a new shape files features. This shape files are overplayed on the drainage map and demarcated as check dam and percolation tank considering the socio-economic factors. The morphometric parameters which influence the soil erodibility are considered for the prioritisation of sub-watershed.  The high priority areas are to be conserved from the soil erosion due the high runoff and land degradation. While selecting the water harvesting structure extra priority has to be given for these regions for the sustainability of land and water resources.

Abstract—Identification of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes is an important for many planning and managementactivities.Remote sensing and GIS technology can be used to assess the Land use Land cover changes. By using NRSC and supervised classification methods in ERDAS IMAGINE software the Land use/Land cover map of the studywas prepared.Considerable LU/LC pattern can be seen in the study area because of the rapid Urbanization and development The socioeconomic development affects the water resources, mineral wealth and ecosystems which are available in the study area.The results show that significant land use changes occurred in the Thirumanimuttar area from 1992 to2010, which may be related to economicdevelopment and urban expansion between 1992 and 2010. The result reveals that the maximum changes were noticed in increase in Built-up-Land and in semi evergreen forest in the study area. Other changes also can be seen in the spatial distribution.
Keywords: Land use / Land cover, Urbanization, Remote sensing, Landsat data, Thirumanimuttar

Gandaki province has the good potentiality of hydroelectricity generation with existing twenty-nine hydroelectricity projects. Since the Province is rich in water resources, analysis of watersheds needs to be done for management, planning and identification of water as well as natural resources. GIS offers integration of spatial and no spatial data to understand and analyze the watershed processes and helps in drawing a plan for integrated watershed development and management. The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) available on the NASA-Earth data has been taken as a primary data for morphometric analysis of watershed in Gandaki Province using QGIS. Delineation of watershed was conducted from a DEM by computing the flow direction and using it in the Watershed tool. Necessary fill sink correction was made before proceeding to delineation. A raster representing the direction of flow was created using Flow Direction tool to determine contributing area. Flow accumulation raster was created f...

Morphometry is the measurement and mathematical analysis of the earth's surface, shape, and dimension of the land forms. Morphometric analysis requires measurement of linear aspects, aerial aspect and slope of the drainage basin. In all 28 literatures, the researchers analyses the morphometric study for watershed management and prioritization of watershed using morphometric analysis through geoinformatics technology. We focus on matter of fact that is methodology, adopted, raw data used as input and process to study sustainable watershed management. The content of this review paper divided in to three sections namely Introduction, Methodology, and analysis, Conclusion followed by references.

The city of Vadodara, India is prone to frequent floods and the most severe floods were received in 1994, 1996, 2005 and 2014 in the recent past. The city has an area of 159 km² and a population of 1.6 million according to the 2010–11 census. Vadodara receives an average rainfall of 1020 mm. Vadodara sits on the banks of the River Vishwamitri, fed by the Ajwa Reservoir. The width of the river decreases as it flows through the city and is subjected to the drainage of the city's sewage and effluents from nearby industries. Alterations of its banks and human encroachment have reduced its width further. A large number of wetlands have been reclaimed and construction has been carried out over them. The number of slums has also increased by a great extent from 192 slums in 1972 to 397 in 2013. The stormwater drainage network in the city is also inadequate. The study aims at highlighting the role of change in land use pattern, unplanned development, depletion of water bodies and buildi...

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The digital maps GIS produce has the benefit of easier revision and spatial analysis. Beside this GIS has capacity of clear representation of geographically referenced in formation. GIS techniques are therefore highly suitable for analysis of distribution, fire risk occurrence patter, temporal variation concentration etc. the major finding of the study are summarized as follows.
Addis Ababa fire and emergency prevention agency has seven branches in seven different sub cities. The stations are concentrated in the center of the city. The distributions of stations are very well in terms of road proximity except the Kolfe branch.
There are 114 hydrants in the city and it is concentrated in the center of the city and along the main roads of the city. This happens because one the highly risked area of the city found in the center, two it is wise to put hydrants along main road because it is accessible for fire trucks.
As all known Addis Ababa is the main trade and industry center of the country. For this matter the number of fire incident occurred in the city are high. For example in the year 2002; registered incidents are 97. Among this around 45% the incident are in the center of the sub city. I through that is why most of the highly fire risked areas are concentrated in the center.
Based on the data I have the number of fire incident occurred in the city are decreasing. But it is not because the incident is not decreasing rather it is because of the data documentation system of the agency is declining.

Morphometry is the measurement and mathematical analysis of the earth's surface, shape, and dimension of the land forms. Morphometric analysis requires measurement of linear aspects, aerial aspect and slope of the drainage basin. In all 28 literatures, the researchers analyses the morphometric study for watershed management and prioritization of watershed using morphometric analysis through geoinformatics technology. We focus on matter of fact that is methodology, adopted, raw data used as input and process to study sustainable watershed management. The content of this review paper divided in to three sections namely Introduction, Methodology, and analysis, Conclusion followed by references.