ABSTRACT

Drought refers to the deficiency in the surface or underground water over extended period of time affecting the regional economy and livelihood. Alterations in the hydrological regime at sub-basin level could be due to either natural phenomenon or due to anthropogenic activities. The current communication models the hydrologic regime considering landscape status in the central Western Ghats. Hydrological regime assessed based on water balance, gives information about the hydrological status of basin. Temporal remote sensing data with geoinformatics aids in quantifying landscape dynamics, while hydrological state variables were based on the meteorological data. The quantification has been done at sub-basin level for select rivers in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. Rivers were chosen based on the level of anthropogenic activities such as dam constructions, conversion of forests to monoculture plantations, etc. Regional meteorological data such as precipitation, temperature, evaporation, etc., along with crop water requirement, domestic and livestock water requirements were used for water budget at sub basin levels. The hydrological status in different basins was expressed as function of water available to that of water demand. The analysis brings out the relationship of catchment land use dynamics with the water availability and stress. The model based on meteorological and land use parameters help in detecting the levels of water stress and linkages with land cover in the respective sub-basin. This helps the decision makers in adopting appropriate mitigation measures to overcome the water stress.

KEY WORDS: Remote sensing, Western Ghats, Sharavathi, water budget, Water stress Drought