PROPOSITION OF POTENTIAL LOCATIONS OF SUITABLE LAND SITES FOR SUITABLE WATER HARVESTING STRUCTURES IN PANCHKULA DISTRICT OF HARYANA, INDIA: A GEOSPATIAL APPROACH

PAWAN KUMAR¹*, RIDHAM KAKAR², POONAM SHARMA³, VIRENDER SINGH ARYA^4
1GIS Labs, Haryana Space Applications Centre (HARSAC), Hisar, 125004, Haryana, India
²Soil Sciences, Haryana Space Applications Centre (HARSAC), Hisar, 125004, Haryana, India
³GIS Labs, Haryana Space Applications Centre (HARSAC), Hisar, 125004, Haryana, India
⁴Director, Haryana Space Applications Centre (HARSAC), Hisar, 125004, Haryana, India
* Corresponding Author : rajapawanrar@gmail.com

Received : 02-03-2022     Accepted : 27-03-2022     Published : 30-03-2022
Volume : 14     Issue : 3       Pages : 11149 - 11156
Int J Agr Sci 14.3 (2022):11149-11156

Keywords : Water Harvesting Structures, Analytical Hierarchy Process, Weighted Overlay Analysis
Academic Editor : Hanuman Singh, Dr Balwinder Kumar, Dr R. S. Umakanth
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Authors are thankful to Director, Haryana Space Applications Centre (HARSAC), Hisar, 125004, Haryana, India
Author Contribution : All authors equally contributed

Precipitation in the form of rainfall is a source of freely available water for human consumption and other activities. Water harvesting system provides the most sustainable and efficient water management practice. It is advantageous in various aspects including but not limited to ecological conservation, erosion reduction and flood management. During planning for resolving the problem of global water crisis, the awareness and adoption of harvesting, collection and efficient water use systems is one of the competent solutions. Geospatial technologies have been proven to be generic, economical and efficient technologies to locate suitable land sites for water harvesting structures (WHS). In the present geospatial modeling eight factors which affect the runoff, velocity, sediment transport and feasibility of WHS were rainfall, slope, lineament, land use/land cover (LULC), stream order, geology, geomorphology and soil texture considered in weighted overlay analysis with suitable weights derived by analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method for derivation of potential suitable land site locations for WHS. The morphometric and hydrological required parameters were calculated using data from the Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) on board the first Japanese Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-1) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) RT1 (Radiometric Terrain Corrected) product with spatial resolution of 12.5 m and radiometric resolutions of 16-bits which revealed the network’s texture, morpho-tectonics, geometry, and relief characteristics. Vegetation cover or LULC parameters were derived from Sentinel-2 MSI satellite image. In order to identify suitable WHS weighted overlay analysis was performed by applying suitable weights derived by analytical hierarchy process (AHP). In conclusion, 100 farm ponds for agricultural and forest regions, 37 percolation ponds for groundwater/aquifer recharge, 34 mulching boulder check dams, 66 gully plugs, 25 grass boulder check dams, 19 gabion check dams, 63 embankment dams, 45 brushwood check dams, 28 check dams and 7 major check dams’ locations were identified for checking soil erosion and water harvesting. During ground truth analysis at most of the locations exactly or in some buffer distance WHS were in existence. But mostly the types of structures were varied. Most suitable structures were not adopted but similar storage techniques were utilized which affects the optimal benefits to environment, ecology and society. It was concluded that geospatial technologies, tools and techniques are efficient and considerably accurate in the proposition of locations for suitable WHS