4. Introduction
• Watershed is a topographically delineated area drained by a stream system i.e, the
total land area above some point on a stream or river that drains down slop to the
lowest point. The watershed is a hydrologic unit often used as physical unit,
biological unit and a socio-economic political unit for planning and management of
natural resources.
• Watershed may also be defined as a natural unit of land which collects water and
drains through a common point called an outlet by a system of drains. Therefore,
watershed is the area encompassing the catchments, command and delta area of a
stream.
• A watershed is a logical unit for planning optimal development of its soil,water and
biomass resources.
5. Water shed Management :
• Watershed management is a form meant to capture the sum of the action
taken to preserve and maintain watersheds. The watersheds the land
area draining to a point on a stream or river, is nature’s production unit
for water supplies. It is the process of guiding and co-ordinating use of
land and water resources in a watershed
• The management of watershed includes all measurements that can be
taken to protect, manage, and conserve water and related land
resources.
• Implementing water management and land usage practices improves
water quality and the natural resources belonging to the watershed.
6. Utilizing the land based on its capability.
Protecting fertile top layer soil.
Minimizing setting up of tanks, reservoir and lower fertile land.
Protecting vegetative cover throughout the year.
In situ conservation of rainwater.
Safe diversion of gullies and construction of check dams for
increasing ground
water recharge.
Water harvesting for supplemental irrigation
7. • The different objectives of watershed management program are:
• 1. To control damaging runoff and degradation and thereby conservation of
soil and water.
• 2. To manage and utilize the runoff water for useful purpose.
• 3. To protect, conserve and improve the land of watershed for more efficient
and sustained production.
• 4. To protect and enhance the water resource originating in the watershed.
• 5. To check soil erosion and to reduce the effect of sediment yield on the
watershed..
8. • 6. To rehabilitate the deteriorating lands.
• 7. To moderate the floods peaks at down stream areas.
• 8. To increase infiltration of rainwater.
• 9. To improve and increase the production of timbers, fodder and
wild life resource.
• 10. To enhance the ground water recharge, wherever applicable.
9. USE OF REMOTESENSING AND GIS IN
WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
Remote sensing finds its way to use in faster assessment of natural resources such
as soil, geology, drainage etc. Aerial photographs and satellites images convey important
information on land use, vegetation, slope ingredient, erosion etc. It also find its use in
assessment of economic activities through land use and infrastructure of land use
GIS is an important tool for tracking spatial data.
GIS give clear perspective for analysis various level
to different patterns of watershed.
11. Methods of watershed management are:-
Contour bond.
Bench terracing.
Micro catchments for sloping lands.
Check dam.
Percolation pond.
Stone Barriers.
12. Contour bunding
Contour bunding involves laying
points of equal elevation along the
contour of a sloping field and then
constructing a bund, or barrier,
along the contour. It is aimed at
reducing run-off and increasing
water filtration to reduce soil
erosion and nutrient loss.
13. Check dams and gully control structures.
Check dams are dams built across
channels or gullies to reduce the rate
of intensive flow, monitor and trap
sediments, increase channel
permeability, increase vegetation,
reduce flood peak discharge
14. Land levelling
Land levelling is a measure used in surface irrigation, such as basin and furrow
irrigation. It consists of preparing the irrigation plot in a way that no high and/or low
spots disturb the uniform distribution of irrigation water on the field, and ensuring the
optimal slope for water movement across a field when irrigated.
15. Bench terracing
Bench terraces are a series of
level or virtually level strips
running across the slope at
vertical intervals, supported by
steep banks or risers
16. Farm ponds
Farm ponds can provide for a number of benefits that can help smallholders in
their quest for development. They provide for water storage, can be used to
rear fish and other aquatic organisms and plants.
17. Percolation ponds are water supply facilities,
built strategically in areas where gravel and
permeable material allow water to seep into
our aquifers. Their primary and most important
purpose is to allow water to filter underground
Percolation ponds.
18. LIFT IRRIGATION
Lift irrigation is a method of irrigation in which water is not
transported by natural flow, but is lifted with pumps or surge
pools etc.
19. Watersheds are classified depending upon the
size , drainage , shape and land use pattern
Macro watershed(>50,000 Hectare)
Sub-watershed(10,000 to 50,000 Hectare )
Milli-watershed(1000 to 10,000 Hectare)
Micro-watershed(100 to 1000 Hectare)
Mini-watershed(1 to 100 Hectare)
Types of Watershed:-
20. 4.Micro watershed :-
The smallest hydrological unit in the
hierarchal system is termed as Micro water
shed having size of 500 – 1000 .
21. Example of micro watershed ?
Nagani watershed in Tehri-Garhwal , district of
Uttarakhand is one of the watershed identified under
the micro-level watersheds planning and development
program . The present study has been carried out to
plan water and land resources management activities in
this watershed.
22. Advantages of watershed :-
It helps in increasing the production of plants.
It helps in capturing , storing , and recharging
groundwater and filtering out water pollutants.
It secures the area from releasing rainwater to
avoid floods during heavy rainfalls.
Reduction of management and prevention of over
exploitation of natural resources.
24. Disadvantages of watershed:-
A lot of costs are required to build a
watershed.
The watershed can only be built in areas
that have adequate rainfall.
It requires regular maintenance.
Some problems caused by building
watersheds are deforestation and loss of
biodiversity.
25. a) Watershed characters
i) Size and shape
ii) Topography
iii) Soils
iv) Relief
b) Climatic characteristic
i) Precipitation
ii) Amount and intensity of rainfall
c) Watershed operation
d) Land use pattern
i) Vegetative cover
ii) Density
e) Social status of inhability.
f) Water resource and their capabilities
26. Main purpose of watershed management
Natural resource management
By considering, in a comprehensive way, all the natural resources in a
watershed, especially water, land and soil, watershed management
provides a framework for assessing the ways in which those resources are
used, what affects them, and how they can best be used and protected.
Most people agree that natural resources are under increasing pressure.
Rising demand for agricultural land to produce at least 70 percent more
food by 2050 in order to feed the growing world population competes with
an increasing need for land and water for urban expansion, industrial
development and tourism. At the same time, recognition is growing that a
substantial proportion of cultivated lands is already highly or moderately
degraded due to unsustainable agricultural practices leading to soil erosion,
nutrient depletion and the loss of productivity. Unsustainable agricultural
practices also have off-site impacts, such as changes in runoff patterns,
river hydrology and groundwater recharge rates, and the pollution and
siltation of downstream water bodies.
27. Watershed management promotes the adoption of sustainable land and water
management practices and encourages investment in better land husbandry that
supports, not harms, the ecosystems on which productivity depends. Efforts to
improve efficiency in the use of natural resources, especially water, are required
to reduce pressures on the natural resource base and to restore the health and
quality of freshwater ecosystems.
The key purpose of watershed management is to negotiate a balance among the
interests and often competing needs of stakeholders and to jointly identify
options for resource use that balance economic, social and environmental
objectives and for which the highest consensus can be achieved among
stakeholders. Effective watershed management identifies degraded areas in need
of restoration, as well as areas with high ecological value that must be protected
from degradation or conversion to other uses. Watersheds have long been
recognized as an appropriate spatial unit for management, and they are also
increasingly recognized as the key scale for resource governance. Rehabilitation
and protection.
28. By considering land and water resources in a holistic and integrated
way, watershed management can provide a framework for the
planning and implementation of measures that protect sloping land
against water-induced natural hazards and risks such as landslides,
gully formation, torrents (i.e. swift, violent streams of water) and
local flooding. Many watershed protection and rehabilitation
measures are available, some of which are described below. More
information on watershed rehabilitation and protection can be
found in the FAO conservation guidelines.
29. COMPONENTS OF WATERSHED
MANAGEMENT
The main components of watershed management programme are:
1. Conservation of water and soil resources
2. Harvesting of water like rain water harvesting
3. Management of crops
4. Practicing various land use systems
30. :
1) Vegetative measures ( Agronomical measures)
2) Strip cropping
3) Grass land farming
4) Wood lands
5) Engineering measures ( Structural practices)
6) Contour bunding
7) Terracing
8) Construction of earthern embankment
9) Construction of check dams
31. 11) Construction of farm ponds
12) Construction of diversion
13) Gully controlling structure
14) Rock dam
15) Establishment of permanent grass and vegetation
16) Providing vegetative and stone barriers
17) Construction of silt tanks detention
18) Influence of soil conservation measures and vegetation
19) cover on erosion, Runoff and Nutrient loss
20) Pasture croppin
32. • BROAD BEDS AND FURROWS
• A. FUNCTION
To control erosion and to conserve soil moisture in the soil during rainy days.
• B. GENERAL INFORMATION
• The broad bed and furrow system is laid within the field boundaries. The land
levels taken and it is laid using either animal drawn or tractor drawn ridgers.
• C. COST
Approximate cost for laying beds & furrows is Rs.1800 / ha.
• d. SALIENT FEATURES
Conserves soil moisture in dryland
• Controls soil erosion.
• Acts as a drainage channel during heavy rainy days.
34. • a. FUNCTION
To intercept the run off flowing down the slope by an embankment.
• b. GENERAL INFORMATION
• It helps to control run off velocity. The embankment may be closed
or open, surplus arrangements are provided wherever necessary. • c. COST
• Approximate cost of laying contour bund is Rs.1400 / ha. •
d. SALIENT FEATURES
• It can be adopted on all soils ii. It can be laid up to 6% slopes. iii. It
helps to retain moisture in the field.
36. 3. BENCH TERRACING
• a. FUNCTION
• It helps to bring sloping land into different level strips to enable cultivation.
• b. GENERAL INFORMATION
• It consists of construction of step like fields along contours by half cutting and half filling.
Original slope is converted into level fields.
The vertical & horizontal intervals are decided based on level slope
. • c. COST
Approximate cost for laying the terrace is Rs.5000 / ha.
• d. SALIENT FEATURES
• Suitable for hilly regions.
• The benches may be inward sloping to drain off excess water.
• The outward sloping benches will help to reduce the existing steep slope to mild one.
• It is adopted in soils with slopes greater than 6%
38. 4. MICROCATCHMENTS FOR SLOPING LANDS
• a. FUNCTION
• It is useful for in situ moisture conservation and erosion control for tree
crops.
• SALIENT FEATURES
• Slope ranges from 2 –8%
• Soil type – Light to moderate texture
• In situ moisture conservation with staggered planting
• Suitable for dry land Horticulture & Agroforestry
• Bund height – 30 to 45 cm.
40. 5. Check dam
• Salient features
• A low weir normally constructed across the gullies
• Constructed on small streams and long gullies formed by erosive activity
of flood water
• It cuts the velocity and reduces erosive activity
• The stored water improves soil moisture of the adjoining area and allows
percolation to recharge the aquifers
• Spacing between the check dams water spread of one should be beyond
the water spread of the other
• Height depends on the bank height, varies from a meter to 3 meter and
length varies from less than 3m to 10m
• Cost varies from Rs. 40000/- to Rs. 100000/- per unit
42. 6. Percolation pond:
• function
To augment the ground water recharge
• Salient features
• Shallow depression created at lower portions in a natural or
diverted stream course
• Preferable under gentle sloping stream where narrow valley exists
• Located in soils of permeable nature
• Adaptable where 20-30 ground water wells for irrigation exist with in
the zone of influence about 800 – 900m
• Minimum capacity may be around 5000 m3 for the sack of economy
• Also act as silt detention reservoir
• Cost varies from Rs. 60000 to 150000 per unit
45. Karnataka is the driest state in India after Rajasthan. Large
state of the area are prone to recurrent droughts. Around ¾ of all
farmland is rain-fed and there is still little scope to expand
irrigation. As a result, farm productivity is low water is
only 3 to 4 months available within a year.
Groundwater tables are falling and most wells run dry in
the long summer months. Because of water scarcity, farmers are
only able to grow a narrow range of 1 or 2 dry land crops. The
growing population is increasing
the pressure on land.
46.
47. Alwar, in Rajasthan, is characterized by the over-exploitation of
groundwater through tube wells for irrigation and the use of
groundwater by industries. On the other hand, the electricity
subsidized to farmers increases to the overextraction of water.
The majority of the population are poor and marginalized farmers
who depend primarily on agriculture and livestock for livelihoods.
Traditional rainwater harvesting systems such as johads, paals, and
bandhs are in a neglected state, so the water from monsoon rains is
not collected and is lost through runoff. And there are no perennial
rivers that can meet the needs of the people.
48. Lack of water during harsh summers affects the livelihoods
of farmworkers and marginalized farmers, leading to huge debts due to
loss of income. Migration to cities and malnutrition among children are
other of the worst effects. The felling of trees for rapid urbanization
and industrialization also causes detrimental climatic effects such as
low rainfall and prolonged droughts in the region due to the loss of
natural green cover.
This project will aim to engage with the communities in the
selected villages to improve the proper management of the
community's water resources with improved watershed structures and
adaptable resource management techniques.
OBJECTIVES
• TO ACHIEVE WATER SECURITY TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE.
• TO PROVIDE COMMUNITIES WITH ADEQUATE WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
CAPACITY TO MITIGATE DROUGHTS.
49. • TO IMPROVE WATER CONSERVATION THROUGH MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL AND
MANMADE WATER BODIES.
• TO RECOVER GREEN COVERAGE IN THE AREA, ESPECIALLY IN DRIED
WASTELANDS.
• TO MAINTAIN COMMUNITY ACCESS TO WATER DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC.
Water shed management practice in rajasthan
50. CONCLUSION
Watershed is an essential in day to day life, a vast range
of activities of every day life depend upon adequate supplies of water for example
agriculture and industry, power production, inland transportation, sanitation and
public health services, and so on. Therefore to provide all these activities
construction of watershed and manage is essential. Watershed is a
geohydrological unit of land that drain at a common point.
The management of watershed provides a means to achieve sustainable land and water
management, poor watershed management is a major cause of land and water
degradation rural poverty in the world.
51. References
”WATERSHED MANAGEMENT”-Dr . Archana
Authors press publishers of scholarity books . New
Delhi edition 2005.
“WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT”
K . Gopal and Upendra Nath Roy . Kanishka
publishers New Delhi edition 2005.
“HYDROLOGY AND THE MANAGEMENT OF
WATERSHEDS”
mats publishing corporations New Delhi edition
2008.
