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. 

This course by IIT Roorkee introduces the fundamental concepts of watershed management planning and principles. It encompasses water quality issues, storm water management, drought management, soil erosion, rainwater harvesting and watershed modeling. The course provides inputs for integrated watershed management and is of help in the planning and development of a watershed. The contents cover the following -

• Watershed management concept and principles, assessment of water resources i.e. surface water and ground water in a watershed, rainfall-runoff and groundwater analysis.
• Soil erosion estimation, water quality and guidelines, watershed modeling, drought assessment and management, integrated watershed management.

The course syllabus can be viewed at the NPTEL website here

This course is also provided by IIT Bombay and covers various aspects of water resources development and management on watershed basis. The various sections of the course focus on the technical aspects of watershed management, perspectives on water management, skills of analyzing the complex issues in water management and on specific knowledge on issues of watershed management. 

Some of the important topics covered in the course include - basics of watershed development and management, watershed modeling, integrated watershed management, sustainable watershed approach, water quality management, stormwater and flood management, drought management, use of modern techniques in watershed management such as remote sensing, Geographical Information System and numerical modeling. The course is useful for undergraduate students, post‐graduate students, teachers, NGO’s and practitioners. A number of field problems are discussed to illustrate the concepts clearly. The contents cover -

• Introduction and basic concepts - Watershed management practices in various regions, sustainable watershed approach, integrated watershed management, watershed modeling, use of modern techniques in watershed management;
• Social aspects of watershed management - Management of water quality, storm water and flood management, drought management, water conservation and recycling.

The course syllabus can be viewed at the NPTEL website here