CONTENTS-
Abstract
Introduction
Campus Plan of Government College of Technology, Coimbatore
Conclusion

Conservation of environment becomes one of the basic necessities of human race due to rapid urbanisation, rapid industrialisation and population explosion.   Human beings interact with and transform the natural world through the use of technology.   Over the course of human history we have developed increasingly powerful technologies, with greater scope of   affecting the state of natural and human world.   Natural resources are being exploited from the available potential sources.   The need of water, the most indispensable and unique requirement of life, is   required for better living.   With the increase in population the per capita consumption has increased from a few litres in Stone Age to as much as 600 litres in developing countries today.   In drought-affected areas, tanks and reservoirs are repeatedly left unfilled, thereby causing acute scarcity of water and leaving millions of hectares of irrigated tracts without water .   Harnessing of un-utilised river flows is mainly carried out through dams and reservoirs.   The present study on water resource management incorporating spatial analysis tool is undertaken in Government College of Technology campus, Coimbatore.   This is an attempt made to improve the prevailing management strategies of a smaller community, which resembles any typical urban community so that proposed strategies could be replicated to any other urban community of any size.

Water has been the vehicle to humans for the settlement and development.   Bringing water to arid or semiarid regions opens ways for agriculture, additional settlements etc.   The average annual rainfall in Coimbatore is 66.75 mm.   Demand for water is constantly increasing with increasing population, better living conditions, more irrigation facilities, industrial, nuclear and space programmes.   However, water is a finite source, i.e., in hydrosphere, roughly constant amount of water is in circulation at any one time but much less than 1% is actually available for human use.   Thus, it becomes the bound duty of all those concerned with water resources development to have in-depth knowledge of hydrology for the design and operation of engineering projects.

Water Pollution and Environmental Considerations

_ A number of water quality models is available and being developed, however, there is an immediate need to apply these models to actual situations for maintaining or improving the water quality.

_ There is a need to develop simple, easy to use domestic type of water treatment facilities.

_ In-depth biological studies need to be taken up along with chemical water quality studies.

_ Area specific studies relating to arsenic, fluoride, nitrate etc. need to be taken up.

_ Recycling of wastewater and pollution control is imperative to conserve sources of fresh water.

Major Hazards due to Mismanagement  

This is a paramount importance   for sustainable development.   Potential hazards of water resource mismanagement are listed below,

*           Health hazards to the people through spread of various water borne diseases.

*          Aesthetic appearance

*           Environmental pollution

The relation between improper water resource management and public health and welfare is quite clear.  

Management Objectives

Management strategies should be in such a way that it has to perform,

•  Protection of environmental health

•  Promotion of the quality of environment

•  Supporting the efficiency and productivity of the economy

•  Rain water harvesting

This pilot plant study for the smaller community assists to arrive at proper management strategies   for larger community like city or town, which resemble any typical urban community so that proposed strategies could be replicated to any other urban community of any size.

Geographic Information System

Geographic information system (GIS) is defined in many ways, by many people.   One of the definition is, it is a systematic integration of computer hardware, software and spatial data, for capturing, storing, displaying, updating, manipulating and analysing in order to solve complex management problems.   Since it links maps and database, it is always a decision support tool.

COMPONENTS OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM

Cartographic Display System

* This system allows to select a particular database and to get map out on the screen or printer etc.

* Map digitising system enables to convert existing paper maps to digital form, thus further developing database.

Database Management System

* This system has the ability to analyse the attribute data.   The general term attribute   refers to qualities or characteristics of places and   is one of the two basic elements of geographical information, along with locations.

* Software, which provides cartographic display, map digitising and database query capabilities   are often referred to as automated mapping facilities management (amfm) systems.

Geographic Analysis System

* This component has the ability to analyse the truly spatial characteristics.   Spatial is the term used to refer more generally to any two or three dimensional data whether or not it relates directly to the surface of the earth.

Image Processing System

* It has the ability to analyse the remotely sensed images and convert it into interpreter map data according to various classification procedures.

Statistical Analysis System

* This performs the traditional statistical analysis and specialise routines for the statistics of spatial data.

Map Data Representation

* Fundamental map representation techniques are vector and raster.

Vector

* In this representation   system, boundaries or course of the features are defined by series of points and they are connected to form graphical representation.

Raster

* In this system, geographic features and the attributes are merged into unified data files.   Pixels or cells having certain values depending upon features form map features.

Comparison between Vector and Raster Models

Vector and Raster have the varying ability to represent reality.

* The vector model, often requires the time consuming and costly compilation of digital map data, while raster   maps are drawn for all cells as soon as they are assigned values.

* The vector model has been dominant in commercial GIS implementations.   The raster model, on the other hand has been used more frequently in natural planning and management and also in teaching because it is easily explained and used.

Application of GIS

GIS can play a fundamental role in the application of spatially distributed data in any environmental modeling study with or without remote sensing data.   The integration of GIS and database management system with the help of computers, environmental modelling and analysis of geographical data analysis will be fast and accurate.

           * Use of Geoinformatics in planning the alignments of linear features like road, railways, canal, etc. have become quite popular on   account of many commercial GIS and CAD software's available in the market.

* Organizations like survey of India, where the Digital Cartographic Database (DCDB) is already available in 1:250,000 scale, are using the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for generating road and railway alignments and alternative route plans.

           * Geoinformatics and related GIS technologies have already been used for sustainable environmental planning, hazard predictions, its monitoring and planning of related mitigation programmes like predicting land slides, water quality monitoring, earthquakes, cyclones, natural resource management, routing and transporting applications, etc.

Remote Sensing and Hydrology and Water

Remote sensing technology offers a means of making frequent, rapid and updated inventories of India's water resources.   Remote sensing surveys have acquired urgency especially in interstate river basins because of absence of complete and authentic data.   Remote sensing technique has found application in various fields of hydrology but the greatest advantage is in the field of water resources discussed as under:

*           Snow Surveys

*           Glacier Monitoring

*           Snow Melt Forecasting

*           Surface Waters

*           Ground Water

*           Drainage Network

*          Watershed Characteristics

Remote sensing technique is also applied to Crop Forecasting, Soil Survey, Forestry, Riverine and Coastal Erosion, Flood Forecasting, Water Quality, Sedimentation Control of Reservoirs, Pollution, Rainfall Measurement, Evaporation Losses, Flood Mapping, etc.

Multiple Uses of Water

The subject of water resources development covers a very wide field ranging from precipitation to water use.   The minimum requirement of water for various activities are as given:

Minimum Requirement of Water

Allocating Water for Various Uses

The Criteria for allocating water various uses in a region are .

*         Public Water Supply:   The highest preferential use for water is domestic use.   Domestic use includes water for drinking, bathing, cooking, washing of utensils, flushing of toilets, laundering, sprinkling of lawns, fire-fighting service etc.   A minimum water supply of 135 litres per head per day is considered essential in an Indian city to meet the requirements of water supply, drainage and sanitation for residences fitted with full flushing.

*           Agriculture:   The second preferential water use is for agriculture because of   (i) agriculture is the mainstay of the Indian economy directly as well as by virtue of its connection with other forms of economic development.   (ii) agricultural water usage is weighed more favourably   because of the socio-economic and political environment in a predominantly rural population of India.

Future Water Requirements

The growth process, increase in population and the expansion of economic and development activities inevitably lead to increase in demands for water for diverse purposes such as irrigation, hydro power, domestic, municipal and industrial, recreation, navigation etc.

*           Irrigation: The food production, which is about 180 million tonne may have to be increased to 250 million tonnes by 2000 AD and to about 400 tonnes by 2025 AD.

*           Energy:   In hydro power generation, the consumptive use is only due to evaporation from reservoirs.   The annual requirement for hydro, thermal and nuclear plants with installed capacities of 40000 MW and 1465 MW respectively has been assessed as about 1. 0 Mhas m as in 1990.

*           Industries: The water demand (2025) for industrial sector is about 12 M ha m, the future requirement.

*           Drinking: The population of India is projected to be 101, 153 and 170 crores in the years 2001, 2025 AD.   The demand (2025) is 4 M ha m.  

Methods of Assessment of Water Resources

*           Assessment of Surface Water Resources:   Qualitative assessment of the surface flow in any stream is made either by direct measurement or through indirect means adopting scientifically accepted derivations.

From adequate available gauge and discharge rate: The topographical map indicating the location of gauge and discharge sites in the basin is studied and the important gauging sites are selected.   The available gauge discharge relationship from a comparison of gauge and discharge hydrographs at a particular discharge site.

From limited gauge discharge data:   From the limited available gauge discharge data, say of 10 to 15 years, the runoff cycle as is adopted in India, is extrapolated after establishing rainfall-runoff correlation by statistical methods.   In this way the annual and to some extend monthly runoff are estimated.   Estimation of 10-days runoff is not possible as factors like soil characteristics, absorption, regeneration, evapotranspiration, which significantly affect such short period runoff are difficult to evaluate.   Likewise, monsoon rainfall is correlated with observed monsoon runoff or annual runoff to develop monsoon rainfall-runoff relationship.   The relationship, which gives runoff values closer to observed ones is adopted for extrapolation of runoff series.

Broadly, the goals of irrigation development are:

i)          Maximum production per unit area

ii)          Maximum production per unit water and

iii)          Maximum area served.

The Indo-Gangetic Plain has a high density of population, good fertile soil and abundant surface and ground waters,   but land is scarce.   The aim should be to secure maximum production per unit of area through multiple cropping, high yielding varieties and the latest technology.

Objectives of Water Resource Development

Three important objectives of water resources development are enhancement of

i)           National Economic Development

ii)           Quality of Environment

iii)           National Integration

Water Resource System Design

The plan or arrangement of water resources development project may be considered as a system.   The project formulation may be called system design.   Systematic analysis comprise of the following steps:

_ Economic Aspects:   Individual features of the project are considered to determine the optimal economical solution

_ Optimization of Whole Project:   Determination of the reservoir size, flood control aspect, single or multipurpose aspects, environmental and ecological aspects.   The optimum design is found through mathematical solutions.

_ Systems of Project:   Systematic simulation may be programmed for computer solution and various alternative combinations tested to formulate the alternative yielding maximum net benefits.

Water conservation is a means of putting the water resources of a country for the best beneficial use with all the technologies at our command i.e. to make water use sustainable, GIS technique can be used to integrate the thematic maps for the ground water potential or rainwater harvesting, by overlapping the contour map and soil map of the area under study. The project on water resource management using GIS is under process for rainwater harvesting in GCT Campus, Coimbatore. The suitability of ground water for irrigation also could be analysed based on mineral constituents of water. The study enables us to identify very high to poor zones of water potential and suitability of water for drinking and irrigation purpose by using conventional data.

Government College of Technology,
Coimbatore – 641 013,
Tamil Nadu, India
Ph: 98422-19881.
E-mail: kj_gct@sify.com