Courses - Watershed Development
Livelihood augmentation in rainfed areas – A strategy handbook for practitioners by Development Support Centre
This strategy handbook for practitioners authored by Astad Pastakia and Sachin Oza and published by Development Support Centre deals with livelihood augmentation in rainfed areas. It is a compilation of ongoing, successful strategies piloted and upscaled by a range of development agencies in different parts of the country. The handbook is presented in four volumes under a common framework and focus on initiatives related to: participatory natural resource management; rural entrepreneurship development; use of information communication technology and institution development.
About 400 million rural poor reside in about 200 poorest districts of the country that constitute rainfed areas. Scientific research has revealed a vast untapped potential in rainfed agriculture where crop yields are lower than their potential by two to five fold. A large number of innovative projects and ideas have been tried to address this issue, although documentation has been uneven and fragmented. Drawing upon such experiences, the handbook points towards new vistas and untapped opportunities in meeting the challenge of enhancing food security with limited water resources and improving the carrying capacities of rainfed areas to match the rapidly increasing populations in these regions and elsewhere.
Read MoreIntroduction to Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) - Open courseware from the United Nations University (UNU)
This introductory course on Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), from the United Nations University (UNU), provides a brief historical background and overview of IWRM and gives an overview of the various aspects of IWRM, from integration, capacity building to applications and case studies.
IWRM has been defined by the Global Water Partnership (2000) as a process, which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. An important aspect of any IWRM program is therefore, research, planning and action at the river basin level. Read More
A training manual on integrated management of watersheds by ICRISAT
The training manual by ICRISAT on integrated management of watersheds is meant for watershed development practitioners and provides an account of the socio-technical aspects of watershed. To begin with, the definitional aspects of watershed are spelt out -
- The term “watershed” strictly refers to the divide separating one drainage basin from another. However, over the years, the use of the term watershed to signify a drainage basin or catchment area has come to stay.
- Hydrologically, watershed could be defined as an area from which the runoff drains through a particular point in the drainage system.
Watershed Management - A Civil Engineering Course under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning
This Civil Engineering Course under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) on the broad subject of Watershed Management is being carried out by Indian Institute of Technology’s and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore as a collaborative project supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India) to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country, by developing curriculum based video and web courses. In these web based lectures, the authors have developed the subject in detail and in stages in a student-friendly manner.
Case studies on water quality - A presentation by ACWADAM
This presentation by ACWADAM deals with monitoring of water quality in a watershed. It describes the process of going about conducting a hydrogeological study of the watershed, right from the study of the basic geology to the importance of the quality of groundwater in the watershed. The main hydrogeological provinces of India are described - (a) Hard rock regimes: Crystalline rocks, Volcanic (Deccan basalt), (b) Alluvial regimes, and (c) Consolidated sedimentary regimes: Soft sedimentary, Hard sedimentary.
Aquifers: The hosts of groundwater – A presentation by ACWADAM
This presentation by ACWADAM on aquifers states that a systematic approach to groundwater studies is required to understand how water exists in each type of rock or sediment for which hydrogeological mapping of aquifers becomes significant in every watershed programme. The necessity of studying the scientific aspects of groundwater such as its properties and distribution below the earth’s surface is highlighted.
Earth sciences in watershed management – A presentation by ACWADAM
This presentation by ACWADAM on earth sciences in watershed management shows how the occurrence of water within a watershed is governed by the rock types occurring both at the surface and within the subsurface, their sequence and their structure. The presentation deals with the basic components involved in the mapping of a watershed –
- The type of rocks (lithology), and
- The structure (whether these are folded, faulted, fractured, jointed etc.,)
Importance of groundwater – A presentation by ACWADAM
This presentation by ACWADAM deals with the importance of groundwater. It is well-known fact that groundwater forms a very crucial source of water supply in the national scenario on water resources today. And yet, it continues to remain a resource that is both abused and misused. Often, watershed projects suffer from insufficient inputs, especially hydrogeological to address the problem(s) of groundwater within the watersheds.
Groundwater balance – A presentation by ACWADAM
This presentation by ACWADAM deals with the subject of groundwater balance. It begins by describing the skeleton for the water balance equation viz., ground surface, soil, aquifer and bed rock. It describes the processes subsequent to rainfall such as interception, initial detention, depression storage, infiltration, runoff, streamflow, soil moisture retention and recharge.
The watershed water balance equation is explained in terms of input (rainfall and water transfers) and output (runoff, evapotranspiration and infiltration). It notes that the input to a generalized water balance is rainfall whereas the input to a groundwater balance is infiltration. The difference between infiltration & recharge, natural & artificial recharge and interflow & discharge are explained thereafter. The water balance for an aquifer may vary, depending upon the nature of groundwater system –
- Watershed with a deep aquifer
- Watershed has both shallow and deep aquifers
- Watershed has only shallow aquifer
Geological mapping – A presentation by ACWADAM
This presentation by ACWADAM deals with geological mapping. The occurrence of water within a watershed is governed by the rock types occurring both at the surface and within the subsurface, their sequence and their structure. The physical structure which plays host to the water within the watershed is geological. Every watershed programme must therefore include a fundamental understanding of this framework so that the development and management measures planned through such programmes are meaningful and properly justified technically.
