Surface Water

The status report reviews some of the important applications of artificial neural networks (ANNs) in surface water hydrology, highlighting their advantages and limitations. The review also covers the basic aspects of ANNs, various ANN architectures and learning algorithms.

The hydrological inventory of Ganga basin provides information regarding availability of hydrological data and highlights major hydrological problems of the basins. The information is a useful input in water resources planning, management and research activities.

Organizer: National Institute of Hydrology

Topics:

• Need for Hydrological Investigations
• Conventional Techniques and methods for Hydrological Investigations;
• Application of Remote Sensing and GIS
• Application of isotopic techniques in surface water and groundwater investigations;
• Advance techniques for measurement of soil erosion and reservoir sedimentation
• Advance instrumentation for hydrological investigations; and
• Advance computing techniques for hydrological data analysis.

Organizer: Water and Food Equitable Distribution Organisation (WEDO)

Topics:

• Making more surface water available
• Sustainable and enduring solutions for water

Venue: Anna University, Chennai

The study estimates the average contribution of snow and glacier melt runoff in the annual flow of Satluj river at Bhakra dam. This study is restricted to the Indian part of Satluj basin. A water balance approach was used to determine the average snow and glacier contribution to the annual flows.

The study undertakes hydrological investigations to develop a conceptual model for the water balance of Lake Nainital in Kumaon Himalayas. All the components of lake water balance, except the sub-surface ones, have been measured or estimated using standard methods like isotope mass balance method in conjunction with the conventional water balance method. The sub surface outflow from the lake was assessed by studying the hydraulic interconnection of the lake and downstream springs using environmental tracers.

The study deals with flood estimation through computation of a flood hydrograph for the ungauged Narmada catchment upto Jamtara using the physical and geo-morphological characteristics of the catchment. The catchment area of 17100 sqkm has been sub-divided into five sub-catchments for the purpose of flood estimation.

The study attempts to do field and laboratory determination of soil classification properties in the Dudhnai river basin of Assam and Meghalaya. Point infiltration tests using double ring infiltrometer were conducted at various locations (forty-four sites) in respect of different land use conditions. Soil samples were collected from these infiltration testing sites.

The saturated hydraulic conductivity was determined in the field using Guelph Permeameter for the selected sites. The undisturbed soil samples and disturbed soil samples (50 cm below the ground) were collected and subjected to elaborate laboratory tests. 

The study was taken up as a part of the representative basin studies being done by NIH and involved hydrological land use & land cover mapping for the Suddagedda basin of Andhra Pradesh. Mapping was carried out through visual interpretation for the years December 1987, April 1989, December 1992 and November 1996 using IRS IB-LISS II, LANDSAT 5-TM and IRS IC-LISS III data.

Land use and land cover are the most important surface characteristics of a basin. They are very dynamic features over space and time and it is difficult to get real time information on them through conventional means. Planners need to update knowledge of natural resources, which can be obtained quickly, economically and accurately through remote sensing techniques. Further, the land use map of a basin or region provides hydrologically significant categories, which are essential for estimation of reliable runoff from ungauged basins.

The study attempts to find out the effects of geomorphology on watershed runoff response in the Devak basin and tries to identify the parameters that are more closely related to runoff. A chief objective of the study is to regionalize the hydrologic models describing the rainfall-runoff process. 

The advanced knowledge of geomorphology of the region is of importance in the field of flood control measures and engineering projects, since geomorphological characteristics of river basins in mountainous areas affect runoff processes and formation of floods in the areas.