Faculty Publications
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Item Impact assessment of watershed development programme - A case study of Itagi watershed(2010) Palakshappa, K.; Nagaraj, M.K.; Shivapur, A.V.Soil, water and vegetation are the important gifts of nature to mankind. Welfare and development of mankind and its civilization revolves around conservation and development of these vital natural resources, which are so interdependent that one can not be managed efficiently without the other two. Watershed Development Programs (WDP) going on in India basically as soil and water conservative programs (as a policy response to the increasing environmental crisis and non-sustainability of agriculture especially in the dry land/semi-arid regions) has modified substantially with the introduction of watershed guidelines in 1994 by the Government of India. In the present study the area considered for assessment is Itagi sub watershed in Ranebennur taluk, Haveri district, Karnataka. During the watershed development programme soil and water conservation structures were constructed in the study area in the year 2004. The analysis of data reveals that there is an improvement in the groundwater recharge, increase in yield of the wells, increase in agricultural production, reduction in soil erosion and many other tangible and intangible benefits as a result of this watershed development programme. © 2010 CAFET-INNOVA TECHNICAL SOCIETY. All rights reserved.Item Analysis of observed soil moisture patterns under different land covers in Western Ghats, India(2011) Venkatesh, B.; Lakshman, N.; Purandara, B.K.; Reddy, V.B.An understanding of the soil moisture variability is necessary to characterize the linkages between a region's hydrology, ecology and physiography. In the changing land use scenario of Western Ghats, India, where deforestation along with extensive afforestation with exotic species is being undertaken, there is an urgent need to evaluate the impacts of these changes on regional hydrology. The objectives of the present study were: (a) to understand spatio-temporal variability of soil water potential and soil moisture content under different land covers in the humid tropical Western Ghats region and (b) to evaluate differences if any in spatial and temporal patterns of soil moisture content as influenced by nature of land cover. To this end, experimental watersheds located in the Western Ghats of Uttara Kannada District, Karnataka State, India, were established for monitoring of soil moisture. These watersheds possessed homogenous land covers of acacia plantation, natural forest and degraded forest. In addition to the measurements of hydro-meteorological parameters, soil matric potential measurements were made at four locations in each watershed at 50 cm, 100 cm and 150 cm depths at weekly time intervals during the period October 2004-December 2008.Soil moisture contents derived from potential measurements collected were analyzed to characterize the spatial and temporal variations across the three land covers. The results of ANOVA (p<0.01, LSD) test indicated that there was no significant change in the mean soil moisture across land covers. However, significant differences in soil moisture with depth were observed under forested watershed, whereas no such changes with depth were noticed under acacia and degraded land covers. Also, relationships between soil moisture at different depths were evaluated using correlation analysis and multiple linear regression models for prediction of soil moisture from climatic variables and antecedent moisture condition were developed and tested. A regression model relating near-surface soil moisture (50 cm) with profile soil moisture content was developed which may prove useful when surface soil moisture contents derived from satellite remote sensing are available. Overall results of this study indicate that while the nature of land cover has an influence on the spatio-temporal variability of soil moisture, other variables related to topography may have a more dominant effect. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.Item Soil water fluxes under different land covers - A case study from Western Ghats, India(2011) Venkatesh, B.; Nandagiri, L.; Purandara, B.K.Knowledge of soil water fluxes is essential in hydrologic studies related to infiltration, runoff, ground water recharge and water uptake by vegetation. Previous studies have investigated the role played by soil and atmospheric factors on soil water fluxes in the unsaturated zone, but few studies have investigated the role played by vegetation or land cover. The present study was taken up understand the effect of land cover on soil water fluxes through long-term field measurements made in three experimental watersheds located in Western Ghats mountain ranges covering a portion of Uttara Kannada District, Karnataka State, India. Soil and climatic conditions were the same for the selected watersheds but they possessed different land covers - natural forest, degraded forest and acacia plantation. In addition to measurements of hydro-meteorological parameters, soil matric potential measurements were made at 4 locations in each of the watersheds up to a depth of 150 cm at an interval of 50 cm. Measurements were made for a period of 2 years (2007-2008) at weekly time intervals Depth-wise soil matric potential measurements were used to estimate soil water fluxes using Darcy's equation for unsaturated porous media. The estimated values of soil water fluxes were analyzed for their temporal distribution and stability. Results indicated that there is an improvement in soil moisture holding under the acacia plantation in comparison to degraded watershed. The estimated deviation of the soil water flux from the field average values indicate that the points located on milder slopes are representative of watershed mean soil water flux. Results also indicated the temporal persistence of soil water fluxes. © 2011 CAFET-INNOVA technical society. All right reserved.Item Spatial variation in drainage characteristics and geomorphic instantaneous unit hydrograph (GIUH); implications for watershed management-A case study of the Varada River basin, Northern Karnataka(2011) Bhagwat, T.N.; Shetty, A.; Hegde, V.S.Geomorphological characteristics can be treated as signatures of hydrological responses. Geomorphologic instantaneous unit hydrograph (GIUH) is of utmost use in planning watershed management programs on a broad scale in absence of hydrologic data. Fifth order basins from different agroclimatic zones in the Varada River basin were selected to understand the spatial variation in drainage characteristics. These sub-basins show significant differences in their morphometric properties such as basin area, drainage density, bifurcation ratio, circularity ratio, constant of channel maintenance etc. These differences reflect variation in the hydrological process and geomorphologic instantaneous unit hydrograph (GIUH) of different sub-basins and can be used to understand watershed management aspects. Fifth order sub-basin in the Southern Transition agroclimatic zone is potential for artificial recharge programs. Sub-basins in the Hilly non-forest zone on the north are ideal for surface water storage like tank development program while Forested Hilly zone on the north are environmentally sensitive and prone to erosion. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.Item Streamflow response to land use-land cover change over the Nethravathi River Basin, India(American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2015) Babar, S.; Ramesh, H.Land use-land cover change (LULC) has considerable impacts on hydrologic response at the watershed level. Quantitative assessment of LULC impacts on runoff generations is vital for water resources development. The soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model was used to study the effect of LULC change on streamflows. In addition to this, the present study proposed a newly developed flow-routing model called runoff coefficient routing model (RCRM). This new model is simple and requires limited data, such as precipitation, LULC and streamflows as compared to other models, which require meteorological and many more input data. The Nethravathi River basin was selected for testing the RCRM model with the SWAT model to study land use-land cover change on streamflows. The SWAT model and RCRM model have been calibrated for 2001-2005 and validated for 2006-2009 daily data. Results have shown that the simulated streams are well correlated with observed streamflows with a coefficient of correlation (R2) equal to 0.82 in calibration and 0.68 in validation period. Whereas, the RCRM model results have shown R2 of 0.81 and 0.66 in the calibration and validation period. Finally, the SWAT and RCRM results were compared. It is observed that the results of the RCRM model have shown a good agreement with SWAT model results of R2 equal to 0.99 and 0.98, respectively, in the calibration and validation period. The sensitivity analysis was also carried out based on Latin hypercube one factor-at-a-time (LH-OAT) method using the SWAT model and found 11 sensitive parameters out of 28 parameters. Model performance was carried out using the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient (NSE) and found 0.81 for calibration and 0.62 for the validation period in the SWAT model. RCRM has NSE of 0.79 and 0.63. The response of the streamflows for the year 2013 was simulated from the calibrated model. The results showed that the observed streamflows have shown good correlation with simulated streamflows with R2 values of 0.86 and NSE of 0.81. From the results, it is concluded that the runoff shows early response in the year 2013 compared to the year 2003. This is mainly due to changes in LULC, which shows the conversion of forest to agricultural area and increase in built-up area from 2003 to 2013. The effect of LULC change on the hydrological model parameters were calculated and observed a decrease in evapotranspiration (ET) of about 4.5%, an increase in runoff of about 0.9%, and an increase in groundwater of about 1.12%. In conclusion, the proposed RCRM in the present study simulates streamflows at par with the SWAT model with only few input data. Hence, the newly developed RCRM model would be used to study streamflows responses to LULC changes. © 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.Item Assessment of variable source area hydrological models in humid tropical watersheds(Taylor and Francis Ltd. michael.wagreich@univie.ac.at, 2018) Kumar Raju, B.C.K.; Nandagiri, L.The objective of this study was to compare the performances of hydrological models that incorporate the Variable Source Area (VSA) mechanism of runoff generation with that of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), which uses the infiltration-excess mechanism. One of the VSA-based model used, SWAT–VSA, has been proposed as a re-conceptualization of the SWAT and uses a topography-based wetness index to identify source areas. In this study, the topography-based wetness index was replaced with a Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) derived from satellite imagery resulting in the SWAT–MNDWI model. Model performances were evaluated through their application in two humid tropical watersheds (Hemavathi–2974 km2; Harangi–538.8 km2) located in the Upper Cauvery River Basin, India. Using relevant data inputs, the three models were applied separately to both watersheds. Models were calibrated for the historical period 2000–2003 and validated for the period 2004–2006 using observed daily observed streamflow records at the watershed outlets. Overall, the SWAT–MNDWI model was the best one in simulating daily streamflow with Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.85, coefficient of determination of 0.88, percentage bias of 13.2% and root mean square error of 37.48 m3/s for the Hemavathi watershed and corresponding values of 0.88, 0.88, 1.09% and 16.67 m3/s for the Harangi watershed. The spatial patterns of surface runoff generation were similar for the SWAT–VSA and SWAT–MNDWI models, but completely different for the SWAT model. Overall results have demonstrated that models incorporating VSA hydrology, and in particular the proposed SWAT–MNDWI model, provide accurate and convenient tools for distributed hydrologic modelling in humid tropical watersheds. © 2017 International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research.Item GIS-based multi-criteria analysis for identification of potential groundwater recharge zones - a case study from Ponnaniyaru watershed, Tamil Nadu, India(KeAi Communications Co., 2020) Devanantham, D.; Subbarayan, S.; Singh, L.; Jennifer, J.J.; Saranya, T.; Kulithalai Shiyam Sundar, K.S.S.Groundwater is one of the most vital natural resources; spatially varying in quality and quantity. Increased urbanisation and population creates tremendous pressure on the quality and quantity of the groundwater resources. In this study, Ponnaniyaru watershed of Cauvery basin was considered for this research. Geographical information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) plays a vital role in preparing various thematic layers for targeting the groundwater potential zones (GWPZ). This study adopts the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Multi influence factor (MIF), multi-criteria decision-making approaches to determine the weights for the influencing factors. Weighted linear overlay analysis was carried out to determine the GWPZ. Further, the resultant GWPZ map has been reclassified into five different classes, namely Very good, Good, Moderate, Poor and Very poor. The results were validated with observed well-yield data, and the predictive precision for AHP and MIF was found to be 75%, and 71% respectively. © 2020 The AuthorsItem Trend and variability of hydrometeorological variables of Tikur Wuha watershed in Ethiopia(Springer, 2020) Ketema, A.; Dwarakish, G.S.The study assessed monthly, seasonal, and annual variability and trend of hydrometeorological variables for 1978–2017 of Tikur Wuha watershed in Ethiopia. The Mann-Kendall trend test and Sen’s slope estimator were employed for the trend and size of the trend, respectively. Besides, the coefficient of variation has been computed for variability analysis. The areal average annual rainfall exhibited an insignificant declining trend with a magnitude of 20.8 mm/decade at a watershed scale. The watershed has been suffering from irregular and erratic rainfall during the dry season. Temperature exhibited a statistically significant rising trend with minimum temperature rises faster than that of the maximum temperature. The streamflow of the Tikur Wuha River was found to be increasing at the rate of 21.16 MCM/decade. The increasing trend of streamflow without the corresponding increase of rainfall in the watershed needs further investigation. © 2020, Saudi Society for Geosciences.Item Prioritization of sub-watersheds for conservation measures based on soil loss rate in Tikur Wuha watershed, Ethiopia(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH info@springer-sbm.com, 2020) Ketema, A.; Dwarakish, G.S.Soil erosion is unquestionably the trickiest land degradation that adversely agricultural productivity. Since resources are scarce, in developing countries like Ethiopia, implementing soil and water conservation practice at a time on the entire watershed is not feasible. Therefore, recognizing erosion-prone areas (the priority watersheds) based on the magnitude of soil loss rate is indispensable. The purpose of this study is to delineate priority sub-watersheds of the Tikur Wuha watershed in Ethiopia based upon the soil loss rate. A universal soil loss equation under the geographic information system environment was employed to estimate the soil loss rate. The result revealed that the average soil loss rate from the watershed is 14.13. It is resulting in a gross soil loss of 962,083 from the entire watershed. A small portion of the watershed (9.22%) is suffering from severe and very severe soil loss rate (> 25). A total of 14.41% of the watershed have soil loss rates above the maximum soil loss tolerance of the area (> 12). Among the seven sub-watersheds in the watershed, four sub-watersheds (SW_3, SW_1, SW_2, and SW_4) are falling under the top priority zone. Soil and water conservation measures should be executed rapidly in the Tikur Wuha watershed, consistent with the rank of the priority watersheds. © 2020, Saudi Society for Geosciences.Item Hydro-meteorological impact assessment of climate change on Tikur Wuha watershed in Ethiopia(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2021) Ketema, A.; Dwarakish, G.S.This study focused on examining the potential effects of climate change on hydro-meteorological variables at the Tikur Wuha watershed (TWW). The weighted average of the validated Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) data of the five Regional Climate Models (RCMs) from multiple General Circulation Models (GCMs) was used to simulate the potential impacts of climate change on streamflow using Soil and Water Assessment Tools (SWAT) model in TWW. The result revealed that the Bega, Kiremt, and annual rainfall increased in both mid and end century for all scenarios. In contrast, the Belg rainfall decreased for all cases except for RCP8.5 at the end century. The rainfall increased more in the end century than mid-century. The increase in rainfall is higher in the Bega compared to Belg and Kiremt season. No significant change in variability of precipitation is observed in the study area. Both the average minimum and maximum temperature increased for all scenarios and time horizons. The annual average streamflow in TWW increased in all cases except a slight reduction in the RCP4.5 scenario in mid-century. Climate change affects the streamflow in the study watershed by increasing the wet season flow and reducing the dry season flow. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.