Exploring water resources in arid zone using remote sensing
Student name: Ms Shailja Bahuguna
Guide: Mr V.S.P.Sinha
Year of completion: 2011
Host Organisation: RRSC-West
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr J R Sharma
Abstract: The arid regions have limited water resources. Precipitation being small and erratic in such
regions is lost to the atmosphere as soon as it falls on the surface. Hence the water recharge
in the area is minimal. Moreover to satisfy the water needs for various purposes water is
pooled from one or the other source. There are certain processes which turn up in loosing
water from the surface and sub-surfaces. Evapo-transpiration being one of them looses a lot
of water into the atmosphere. Collectively with such other natural and artificial processes
the regions fall short of water. Monitoring the status of water balance variables is a wise
step to know the status of water on surface and sub-surfaces. The present study tries to
identify the relationship between water balance variables and remote sensing data that can
eventually help in the estimation of water present in an area.
The relationship among Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from the
Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) and water balance variables for Osian-Mandore
region of Rajasthan state was quantified using the linear regression technique. The
regression model identified NDVI as one of the significant variables to estimate
evapotranspiration. Estimation of evapotranspiration for particular days of the year 2008
using the data of the past years (2004-2007) was done and validated.
Keywords: NDVI, SWAT, Regression, Water resources, Water balance
