Flow Simulation and Storage Assessment in an Ungauged Irrigation Tank Cascade System Using the SWAT Model

In the semi-arid regions of South Asia, tank systems are the major source of irrigation. In India, the Telangana state government has initiated the Mission Kakatiya program to rejuvenate irrigation tank systems. Understanding the hydrological processes that supply water to these systems is critical to the success of these types of programs in India. The current study attempted to comprehend the hydrological processes and flow routing in the Salivagu watershed tank cascade system in Telangana. There are a lot of ungauged tank cascade systems in this region. Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), a physically-based model, was used to simulate flow patterns in the Salivagu watershed with and without tank systems. The geospatially extracted area and volume were used for this study provided by WBIS-Bhuvan-NRSC. Additionally, the Katakshapur Tank Cascade System (KTCS) was chosen to analyze the water availability in each tank using the water balance approach. The Salivagu watershed flow simulation without tanks overestimated streamflow. The volume difference in flow between with and without tank was 606 Mm3, 615.9 Mm3, and 1011 Mm3 in 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. The SWAT simulated volumes of the Ramchandrapur and Dharmaraopalle tanks in KTCS were merely satisfied because the tank size was less than 0.7 km2 and the storage capacity was up to 1 Mm3. Due to tank sizes more than 0.8 km2 and capacities greater than 2 Mm3, the Mallampalli and Katakshapur tank simulation findings were in good agreement with WBIS-Bhuvan-NRSC. This research advances our understanding of the hydrological processes in ungauged cascading tank systems in tropical semi-arid regions.

Wetlands for a Sustainable Urban Future: Insights from Pondicherry, South India

Wetland ecosystems hold an important part of the world’s biodiversity and are complex social-ecological systems. Aiming to understand interdependencies among their components and to define management policies, the social-ecological trajectory of Oussudu lake – a wetland of Pondicherry region in South India – was reconstructed and analysed. During the last decades, this wetland has transformed from an irrigation tank to a lake to cater biodiversity conservation and recreation. The environmental history highlights a governance change that has contributed to “black boxing” the wetland’s functional environment and to conceal major water issues at regional and local levels. This study emphasizes the importance of implementing an approach that combines the management of this urban lake commons with a multi-scalar, socio-ecological and multi-stakeholder analysis. A trade-off on the seasonal water regime between different users - including fauna and flora - has to be found.

Avifaunal diversity of some selected water bodies of Khanapur Taluka, Belagavi District, Karnataka, India

An observation on avian species composition, density, and diversity was carried out at three selected water bodies of Khanapur Taluka, Belagavi District, for a period of 11 months in 2014. During the study, a total of 28 species belonging to 12 families from five orders were recorded. Of these, Ciconiiformes was represented by seven families followed by Coraciiformes by two families while Anseriformes, Charadriiformes and Gruiformes were represented by one family each. Among the three water bodies studied, maximum species composition (26 species) was recorded from Nandgad pond which also hosts Lesser Adjutant Stork and Wooly-necked Stork categorized as ‘Vulnerable’ and Painted Stork, River Tern and Oriental White Ibis as ‘Near Threatened’ by the IUCN Red List. Bidi Minor Irrigation Tank stands second with 17 species while the minimum was recorded at Hebbal Minor Irrigation Tank with 11 species. Based on our observation, a smaller habitat with habitat heterogeneity can attract more assemblages of avifauna and also result in increased species richness and diversity.

Development of Irrigation Tank Monitoring System and Its Environment for the Effectiveness of Rice Irrigation

The SRI (system of rice intensification) rice cultivation system can save water use and increase production. Besides, a controlled environment for monitoring such matters is important to be recorded to be able to investigate deeply the phenomena that occur. Therefore, a preliminary test to analyze the performance of the irrigation tank monitoring system and its environment was developed to monitor the effectiveness of rice cultivation watering at the research stage. A 400 mm × 700 mm bed planting fruit will be planted with water from two tanks with a 0.03 m3 capacity. A bed planting and tank were designed for two conditions, namely automatic and manual bed planting and tank. The control box of the monitoring system is placed in the water tank by monitoring water level, ambient temperature and humidity, water temperature, and illuminance from light. The performance test results of the monitoring system show that the device can function within normal limits. Sensors integrated with the ESP8266 NodeMCU development kit can be to record environmental conditions. The measurement data is then sent to the cloud via the internet and stored as a database. This database can be easily downloaded for further analysis if needed.

Real-time monitoring of water level and storage dynamics of irrigation tank using IoT

The internet of things (IoT), an emerging technological marvel, consists of a group of physical objects such as vehicles, machines and sensors to monitor and transfer data over the internet with much less human to machine interaction. It relies on a host of technologies like application programming interfaces (API), which in turn, help the devices to get connected with the internet. Efficient irrigation tank management requires a strong database on continuous water level dynamics for irrigation decision-making. Real-time tank water level monitoring is possible through an IoT device by integrating sensors and microcontroller that can send the water level data to the cloud. Google sheet is used to store the water level data that can be viewed using a web application as well as a mobile application. The contour map of the study tank is used to develop the stage (water level) vs volume curve. The volume of water present in the tank at any time can be arrived at for any tank water level using the above curve. The developed device can provide real-time continuous water level data with low cost and simple infrastructure, thus aiding tank water management.