Critically analysising impact assessment of completed watershed program of WOTR: using GIS technology
Student name: Ms Aksheyta Gupta
Guide: Dr Nithiyanandam Yogeswaran
Year of completion: 2016
Host Organisation: Watershed Organization Trust, Ahmednagar
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Ms Chhaya Nikrad
Abstract: The Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR) has been working in the Vidharbha region since several years now. In year 2006 WOTR was directed by Nabard for implementation of one cluster in Wardha district for NHWDP programme. While searching for cluster the peoples in Malegaon and other adjoining villages were found interested for the same programme. After doing detailed assessment and conducting several meetings, four villages namely Jasapur, Ekarjun Kinhala and Malegaon came forward to implement the watershed development programme in their village. The reason behind conducting an impact assessment was to see how the watershed programme was developed the socio-economic conditions of the farmers in the cluster as this region had seen many farmer suicide cases. As a GIS analyst the work given was to critically evaluate how the completed watershed programme had affected the change in the cropping pattern of this cluster and if it had benefited the socio-economic conditions of the farmers residing in this cluster. Both Qualitative & quantitative research methods were used. Satellite imagery was used for both Kharif & Rabi crops and accordingly LULC maps were generated. Groundtruthing with the help of GPS were conducted, NDVI analysis of RABI crops were made, Change in the ground water level was observed & lastly with the help of questionnaire socio-economic conditions were examined. Soil loss for Malegoan cluster was evaluated using two main attributes of RUSLE model i.e. C –Factor {Conservative} & P-Factor {Support-Practice}. Soil erosion is a complex phenomena which is influenced by various natural agents such as wind, water, glacier etc. Every year more than 70 billion tons of top soil is removed due to these natural weathering agents, mainly coming from agricultural land and as a result 25 million hectares of productive land is lost. The soil erosion risk factors such as rainfall erosivity, soil Erodibility, slope length and steepness (R, K, LS) depend mainly on nature and cannot be easily altered. Currently, the only soil erosion risk factor that can be modified by policy makers and farmers at reasonable costs is the cover and management factor (C-factor & P factor), which reduces soil erosion in fertile lands, hence preventing the loss of nutrients and preserving soil organic carbon. Malegoan cluster of karanja taluka comes under Vidharbha Region where agriculture is a predominant occupation. Uneven rainfall, drought prevailing condition, loose erodible soil have resulted in poor fertility and hence decreased crop production leading to frequent Suicide cases of farmers in this region.
The resultant annual soil erosion map shows maximum soil loss of about 50.46 t h-1 year-1 this suggest that about 56.3 % of area comes under severe soil erosion area, 30.5% of area comes under moderate soil erosion area & about 13.2% of area comes under slight soil erosion prone area. But since in this study three periodic time series were taken i.e. 2008-2011-2015 especially for Rabi cropping pattern there has been positive improvement seen in the impact of soil erosion. Model estimated erosion assessments in this study were well matched with field based current erosion damage assessment & literature study.
Keywords: RUSLE, Soil erosion, Severity, Remote sensing, GIS, Soil loss, Erosion Risk
