Designing a watershed scorecard as a performance evaluation tool for UR river watershed, Tikamgarh district, Madhya Pradesh
Student name: Ms Meeta Gupta
Guide: Ms Fawzia Tarannum
Year of completion: 2016
Host Organisation: National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr V.C Goyal
Abstract: Watershed health is a potent property that can be altered due to changes in climate and human activities. Degradation of a watershed can result in the depletion of water resources, soil loss and degradation of land, failure of the crop cover and damage to infrastructure. It also threatens the livelihood of thousands of people and limits the capability to develop a healthy agricultural and natural resource base. Thus, an assessment is vital to evaluate the health of the watershed to future degradation. To meet this objective, watershed scorecard is designed to identify and evaluate a set of indicators that reflect the health of the watershed.
To have a better understanding and have first-hand knowledge of the concept, Ur River Watershed in Tikamgarh District, Madhya Pradesh was taken as a case study to assess the watershed health. Evaluating the health of the watershed with the help of the indicators like surface water quality, groundwater quality, forest conditions, agricultural conditions and soil conditions were the main objectives of the study. This was accompanied by evaluating the indicators with National standards and guidelines. Accordingly the grades were assigned to the indicators which helped in designing of a watershed scorecard.
The results revealed that within the watershed, the forest and soil conditions need a considerable amount of improvement in order maintain the ecosystem whereas the surface water quality, groundwater quality and the agricultural conditions requires protection as well as enhancement is some areas.
Keywords: Watershed, Watershed Health, Watershed Scorecard, Indicators, Ur River, Tikamgarh
