Developing procedures for assessment of ecological status of Indian River basins in the context of environmental water requirements

River basins / Ecology / Indicators / Environmental flows / Environmental management / Habitats / Biota / Fish / Ecosystems / India / Krishna River Basin / Chauvery River Basin / Narmada River Basin / Periyar River Basin / Ganga River Basin

Optimization of state-of-the-art fuzzy-metaheuristic ANFIS-based machine learning models for flood susceptibility prediction mapping in the Middle Ganga Plain, India

CRediT authorship contribution statement: Dr. Aman Arora and Dr. Alireza Arabameri have conceptualized the study, prepared the dataset, and optimized the models. Dr. Manish Pandey has helped in writing the manuscript. Prof. Masood A. Siddiqui, Prof. U.K. Shukla, Prof. Dieu Tien Bui, Dr. Varun Narayan Mishra, and Dr. Anshuman Bhardwaj have helped in improving the manuscript at different stages of this work.Peer reviewedPostprin

Hydrological Research at National Institute of Hydrology, India

The National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) is a premier research Institute in India in the area of hydrology and water resources. The Institute was established in 1978 with the main objective of undertaking, aiding, promoting and coordinating systematic and scientific work in all aspects of hydrology. The Institute has its headquarters at Roorkee (Uttarakhand), four regional centres at Belagavi, Jammu, Kakinada and Bhopal and two centres for flood management studies at Guwahati and Patna. The Institute is well equipped to carry out computer, laboratory and field oriented studies. This article presents an overview of research activities being undertaken by the Institute

Managing Water Resources in Large River Basins

Management of water resources in large rivers basins typically differs in important ways from management in smaller basins. While in smaller basins the focus of water resources management may be on project implementation, irrigation and drainage management, water use efficiency and flood operations; in larger basins, because of the greater complexity and competing interests, there is often a greater need for long-term strategic river basin planning across sectors and jurisdictions, and considering social, environmental, and economic outcomes. This puts a focus on sustainable development, including consumptive water use and non-consumptive water uses, such as inland navigation and hydropower. It also requires the consideration of hard or technical issues—data, modeling, infrastructure—as well as soft issues of governance, including legal frameworks, policies, institutions, and political economy. Rapidly evolving technologies could play a significant role in managing large basins. This Special Issue of Water traverses these hard and soft aspects of managing water resources in large river basins through a series of diverse case studies from across the globe that demonstrate recent advances in both technical and governance innovations in river basin management

Changes in the Flood Plains and Water Quality Along the Himalayan Rivers After the Chamoli Disaster of 7 February 2021

The Himalayan regions are vulnerable to all kinds of natural hazards. On 7 February 2021, a deadly disaster occurred near the Tapovan, in Uttarakhand, Himalayas. During the event, large volume of debris along with broken glacial fragments flooded the Rishi Ganga River and washed away the nearby hydropower plants (Rishi Ganga and Tapovan), which was revealed from detailed analysis of multi spectral and bi-temporal satellite data. We present the impact of the Chamoli disaster on the flood plains and water quality of Himalayan rivers, Rishi Ganga near Tapovan, Alaknanda near Srinagar and Ganga near Haridwar and Bijnor. We used four locations along four sections of Himalayan rivers and have analysed various indices, modified normalized difference water index, normalized difference chlorophyll index, and normalized difference turbidity index, to study the changes in water quality and flood plains. On comparison of the spectral and backscattering coefficients derived from Sentinel-2 optical and Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar data, changes in the water quality and flood plains of the rivers were found

Tackling water and food crisis in South Asia: Insights from the Indo-Gangetic Basin

CPWF-IWMI “Basin Focal Project for the Indus-Gangetic Basin” is an initiative by the CPWF, to identify steps to be taken towards integrated management of the IGB’s water and land resources to improve productivity and ensure future sustainability of all production and ecosystems in the basin. The project was developed with the objective of conducting basin-wide analysis of the conditions, constraints and opportunities for improving agricultural water productivity and alleviating poverty through high potential interventions. This objective was accomplished through rigorous analysis and mapping of water availability and access, poverty, and productivity of water and identifying potential interventions that contribute to improved water productivity and poverty alleviation in the Indo-Gangetic basin

Closing of the Krishna Basin: irrigation, streamflow depletion and macroscale hydrology

River basins / Physical geography / Climate / Stream flow / Hydrology / Rainfall runoff relationships / Evapotranspiration / Irrigation programs / Water allocation / Water transfer / Environmental effects / Water quality / India / Krishna River / Andhra Pradesh / Maharashtra / Karnataka

Improving water productivity, reducing poverty and enhancing equity in mixed crop-livestock systems in the Indo-Gangetic Basin: CPWF project report 68

Farming systems / Mixed farming / Water productivity / Feed production / Livestock / Energy consumption / Gender / Poverty / River basins / Case studies / India / Indo-Gangetic Basin / West Bengal / Haryana / Uttar Pradesh

India-UK Water Security Exchange Initiative - February 2016 visit. Final report

This report outlines the conclusions of a visit by senior Indian water managers and decision makers to the UK in February 2016. A seven day visit to the UK took place from 13th-20th February 2016, coordinated by the UK Water Partnership and funded by several UK organisations. The report is intended for India-UK Water Security Exchange Initiative participants and stakeholders