Five Days Training Course on Tools & Techniques for Hydrological investigations, 4 – 8th November, 2019 at NIH, Roorkee): A brief report

Abstract

Water, which covers approximately 70% of the Earth’s surface, sustains plant and animal life, plays a key role in the formation of weather, and helps to shape the surface of the planet through erosion and other processes. India is one of the fastest growing economies in the World. The developmental activities are putting a lot of pressure on all the natural resources of the country. Water is no exception. There is a competition for utilization of water for power, irrigation, municipal, industrial, recreation, aesthetic and other uses. The overall impact is apparent in water conflicts. Accurate and reliable hydrological database is required for development of management plans. Further, changing LULC and climatic conditions are affecting both the quality and quantity of water. Hydrological Investigations are fundamental for assessing water resources and understanding the hydrological processes. Because the hydrologic cycle is so diverse, hydrologic measurement and analysis methods span many disciplines: including soils, oceanography, atmospheric science, geology, geophysics and limnology, and so on. Apart from the conventional techniques, now many new and advanced techniques and instruments are available for hydrological investigations worldwide. It is high time that the engineers, scientists, and professionals working in the field of water resources and hydrology start adopting these techniques to improve their capabilities. Among the latest techniques, application of environmental isotopes and remote sensing has increased dramatically. Isotope techniques can be used to measure groundwater recharge, pattern of sedimentation in water bodies, track pollution in groundwater, leakage and seepage from water bodies, measurement of hydrogeological parameters, origin and age of groundwater, surface water-groundwater interaction. Remote sensing and GIS techniques have become the backbone of all the hydrological investigations in the last 2-3 decades. These techniques are being widely used for mapping earth features from airborne sensors.