Abstract:
The water resources management has of late become a very challenging
task due to manifold challenges of multi-sectoral demands, decreasing availability
coupled with the looming threats of climate change. The Bundelkhand region in
central India is primarily dependent on rain-fed agriculture. In this semi-arid region,
drought is becoming frequent, and there is an increasing pressure on scarce
resources such as farm land, water and pastures. The growing water demand across
competitive sectors, increasing severity of droughts, declining groundwater levels,
and deteriorating water quality are some of the crucial problems faced by the
stakeholders in the water sector of this region. Effective solutions to the water
problems must tackle both the supply and demand, identify user’s actual needs and
proceed with appropriate technologies. Integrated Water Resources Management
(IWRM) approach is considered to be particularly useful for the water resources
management in such semi-arid regions of India. Estimation of the available water
supplies and the demands is the first and foremost task in developing management
strategies for water-scarce regions. This paper presents the results of a detailed
water balance study carried out for Ur River watershed in Tikamgarh district of
Madhya Pradesh (India) by quantifying the important hydrological components
during 1999-00 to 2010-11. The spatial information pertaining to the topography,
land use and soil type have been extracted using the ArcGIS 9.3 and crop water
requirements computed by CROPWAT 8.0. It is observed that surface runoff of
301, 206 and 333 MCM was generated during the wet years 1999-00, 2003-04 and
2008-09 for an annual rainfall of 1212, 1035 and 1196 MCM, respectively. The water budget helps to understand the overall water availability and demand during periods of droughts, so that effective water resources management schemes can be devised.
