India

This report by ACWADAM describes the results of a research study conducted under the DFID funded AGRAR project at the Kolwan site in Pune district of Maharashtra state in India. The research focused on studying the usefulness of artificial recharge to augment groundwater resources through watershed development.

An important criterion of the study was also to understand the impact of artificial recharge on already changing livelihoods in areas where watershed development was conducted on a large scale.

The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) is the leading scientific, technical, professional and not-for-profit Non-Governmental International Organisation (NGO) in the fields of irrigation and drainage. It draws together the diverse disciplines and professions involved in the planning, design, operation, management and development of irrigation, drainage and flood management works throughout the world. The Commission, with active support from a network of over 100 member countries, provides an international forum and network in which the technical, agronomic, socio-economic, environmental and managerial complexities involved in the development, management and operation of irrigation, drainage and flood control works are discussed. Improved practices are identified and promoted through the National Committees in the member countries.

A detailed description about ICID is available at www.icid.org

The report emphasizes the necessity of Computer Aided Learning and presents a Learning Package on Hydrology covering various important elements of hydrology including the definitions and figures in a simple and straight forward language.

The report attempts asymptomatic estimation of runoff curve number for small hard rock watersheds from rainfall-runoff data.One of the major activities in Applied Hydrology is the estimation of storm event runoff from ungauged small watersheds. Such estimates are often required in the design of small hydraulic structures and in formulation of watershed management strategies.

The report attempts to do a comparison of single and multiple flow direction algorithms for computing topographic parameters in TOPMODEL. Topography is an important factor that influences the physical phenomenon of rainfall-runoff. Undeniably, it plays a primary role in the gravity drainage within a basin. In the last decade, ever-developing computer techniques associated with the greater availability of terrain data in digital form has favored the production of physically based models, which have spatial variability of topography built into their structure.

The report deals with the estimation of geomorphology parameters for small catchments using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Stream channel morphology is literally the study of stream channel form and structure, but generally it is taken to mean their form and structures regarded as a whole or their collective morphology features. Systematic analysis of morphometry of any drainage basin and its stream system is of great importance in understanding the hydrological behavior of the basin.

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The report deals with the transportation behavior of lindane, a pesticide used commonly in the agricultural and public health sectors in India, through sandy and loamy soils. The contamination of groundwater by pesticides is a worldwide problem because of their tissue degradation and carcinogenic nature. They are bio-accumulative and relatively stable and therefore, require close monitoring.

The pesticides used for agricultural, forestry and domestic activities leach into the groundwater and therefore, it is very important to study their transportation behavior in different types of soil media.

The report deals with development of reaeration coefficient for Indian condition using mathematical approach and field studies. Of the various constituents, which determine the quality of water, Dissolved Oxygen is the most important parameter indicating the health of a stream. There is a continual replenishment (reaeration) or utilization (deoxygenated) of Dissolved Oxygen due to inflow of waste load at different points in the stream. When a waste load is discharged into a flowing stream, it is mainly subjected to advection, dispersion and reaction kinetics. Waste Load Allocation (WLA) studies provide information to assist in making effective decisions on levels of treatment required for a source or sources of pollutant loads.