Evaluation of Water Resources in a Complex River Basin Using Water Accounting Plus: A Case Study of the Mahi River Basin in India
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 149, Issue 12
Abstract
Accurate and well-categorized information on water supply, demand, consumption, and withdrawals is necessary for the assessment and management of water resources. In this context, the Water Accounting Plus (WA+) framework is a valuable platform for quantifying water flows. By utilizing remote sensing datasets, WA+ enables it to quantify water flows in a basin and compute hydrological processes while considering the impact of land use. To understand the water inflows, outflows, consumption, withdrawals, and storage variations of water resources, we applied the WA+ framework to a complex river basin, namely the Mahi River basin. Using blue and green water estimation, we segregated the irrigated and rainfed areas and computed the hydrological processes at the pixel level using the WaterPix model. We also calculated performance indicators to illustrate the state of water resources in the basin. Our analysis shows that the Mahi River basin is water-stressed and mainly relies on groundwater (GW) for irrigation. The average exploitable and available water flows from 2012 to 2020 were and , respectively, and the average outflow was . The average vertical recharge and withdrawal of GW were 17.47 and , respectively, while surface water (SW) withdrawal was very low and concentrated in only a few areas. According to the results of the flow and GW sheets, 95% of the utilized flow came from GW, indicating a high dependency on GW. A 25% depletion of water storage was observed during the study period. These results indicate that overexploitation of GW for irrigation and depletion of water storage are the main problems in the Mahi River basin. Our study can help local and national authorities to identify areas with poor water management practices and develop appropriate water management plans and schemes
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Data Availability Statement
All of the data, models, and code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors are thankful to the IMD, USGS, IWMI, ISRO, ESA, GLDAS, NASA, and WDPA, for providing the datasets to carry out this research. The authors also acknowledge Dr. P. K. Singh (Scientist, NIH Roorkee), and Dr. P. K. Mishra (Scientist, NIH Roorkee) for their support in research. The authors are grateful to the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, for the computational support for this research activity. Pooja Patle acknowledges the support of IIT Roorkee and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, through the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) for carrying out this research for Grant No. PM-31-22-716-414.
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Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 149 • Issue 12 • December 2023
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© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 20, 2023
Accepted: Jul 5, 2023
Published online: Sep 25, 2023
Published in print: Dec 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Feb 25, 2024
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