TR(BR)-17/97-98 : Guidelines for hydrological investigations in a small watershed

Abstract

India is a vast country with varying topography, climate, and people of different cultures. Because of exploding population, it faces tough tasks in the rational use of its limited natural resources, i.e., vegetation, soil, land and water. Particularly so, highly dynamic water resource's problems are complex and hydra-headed in nature. As such, there are plethora of dimensions to their development, management and utilisation, economic, financial, institutional, legal, physical, political, social and technical aspects and constraints. For the optimal development of the life, all these resources should be managed efficiently by selecting a suitable geographic unit so that these natural resources can be handled practically, collectively, and simultaneously. Watershed is a unit on which all the measurements regarding natural resources can be made accurately. Therefore, a watershed is considered an ideal unit for management of natural resources.