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.
