Appraisal of Environmental Health and Ecohydrology of Free-Flowing Aghanashini River, Karnataka, India

T. V. Ramachandra 1,2,3,* , Vinay Shivamurthy 1,4,5 , Asulabha K. Subramanian 1 , Sincy Varghese 1 , Bharath Setturu 1 and Bharath H. Aithal 1,4

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1 Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Energy & Wetlands Research Group, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore 560012, India; svinay@iisc.ac.in (V.S.); asulabhas@iisc.ac.in (A.K.S.); sincyv@iisc.ac.in (S.V.); setturb@iisc.ac.in (B.S.); bharath@infra.iitkgp.ac.in (B.H.A.)
2 Centre for Sustainable Technologies (ASTRA), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore 560012, India
3 Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore 560012, India
4 Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management (RCG SIDM), IIT-Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India
5 Department of Civil Engineering, SR University, Warangal 506371, India

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Abstract


Rivers are vital freshwater resources that cater to the needs of society. The burgeoning population and the consequent land-use changes have altered the hydrologic regime with biophysical and chemical integrity changes. This necessitates understanding the land-use dynamics, flow dy namics, hydrologic regime, and water quality of riverine ecosystems. An assessment of the land-use dynamics in the Aghanashini River basin reveals a decline in vegetation cover from 86.06% (1973) to 50.78% (2018). The computation of eco-hydrological indices (EHI) highlights that the sub-watersheds with native vegetation had higher infiltration (and storage) than water loss due to evapotranspiration andmeeting the societal demand. The computation of water quality index helped to assess the overall water quality across seasons. The study provides insights into hydrology linkages with the catchment landscape dynamics to the hydrologists and land-use managers. These insights would aid in the prudent management of river basins to address water stress issues through watershed treatment involving afforestation with native species, appropriate cropping, and soil conservation measures.