Abstract:
The Upper Bhopal Lake is the only source of water for the city of Bhopal. Economic as well as recreational activities of the city of Bhopal is dependent on the water availability in the Upper Bhopal Lake which receives water as surface runoff only during monsoon period of every year. Though, the lake exists for more than 1100 years, neither any data on hydrological characteristics of catchment of the lake was available nor any hydrological model was available for predicting runoff reaching to the lake from its catchment. The Upper Bhopal Lake has a catchment area of 362.35 square kilometer. The land use pattern of about 80% of the catchment is agricultural, where as 5% is of forest and the rest is urban. Monsoon sets in the catchment area by 15th June every year. The agricultural area starts contributing by the end of August, whereas the lake stars receiving surface runoff right from the beginning of monsoon season as runoff from the urban area. In this paper detailed features of catchment of the lake, inventory of the available data for the lake and its catchment has been investigated. Report on the requisite hydrological data generated in the catchment have been presented. Daily water balance of the lake has been carried out. From the daily water balance, flow from the agricultural area were quantified and presented in this paper.
