20-Shrinkage of Udaipur lakes study using remote sensing & GIS analysis

Abstract

In the recent years, Udaipur, the city of lakes is facing a major problem of insufficient water reaching to the lakes from the catchment during rains and consequently drying of lakes. This has resulted in economic losses to the tourist industry as well as this has emerged as major environmental problem. The present study has been attempted using Satellite Remote Sensing data over last 30 years and compared with the base details available from existing maps on 1:25,000 scale surveyed during 1959-60.

Six subcatchements were studied for cropped areas using multi — temporal data of rabi season pertaining to 1975,1996 and 2004 to observe the changes in terms of aerial extent. Potential causes linking hydrogeological setup with shrinkage in the area of the lake were also studied, supplemented with ground truth data. Digital Elevation Model of the area was generated to study the terrain characteristics of the catchement. Existing and depicted drainage have also shown discrepancy. Upstream areas have shown the trends of higher intensity of cropping. Action plan is to be implemented, translated on large scale by district authorities with people's participation.