Checkdam site selection using GIS approach

doi:10.1016/0273-1177(93)90213-U

Advances in Space Research

Volume 13, Issue 11, November 1993, Pages 123-127

https://doi.org/10.1016/0273-1177(93)90213-U Get rights and content

Abstract

Geographical Information System (GIS) is an efficient tool for collecting, storing, retrieving transforming and displaying spatial data and also non-spatial data from the real world for a particular set of purposes. Using GIS approach an attempt has been made to select suitable sites for checkdams for harvesting rain water. In this present study Alur taluk of Hassan district, Karnataka, India covering 400 sq. km. area was choosen. This area receives good rainfall annually, but due to the hilly terrain runoff is high. In spite of the natural gift of good rainfall, the people in this area are able to grow mainly rainfed crop as there are few irrigation facilities. Hence surface water harvesting was given priority and a suitable methodology has been developed for selecting sites for constructing checkdams. Various thematic maps of the study area on 1:50,000 scale were input and analysed using ARC/INFO GIS package. Second and third order streams were selected and superimposed over lineament (fracture) map to avoid such segments of streams which are controlled by fractures to avoid weak zone/seepages. Suitable sites were selected depending on contour and slope. Probable Waterspread Area (WSA) and Immediate Downstream Area (IDA) were drawn. These polygons were intersected with different thematic maps to find out the suitability. Before intersecting, appropriate weightages (least suitable to most suitable in the scale of 1 to 5) were assigned to different classes of thematic maps keeping in mind that worst area only gets submerged in case of WSA while in the case of the IDA, weightages were assigned keeping in view of the requirement of water. Normalized Cummulative Weighted Index (NCWI) was developed to find out the suitability of the sites from the view point of natural resources. All the seven sites selected were found quite reasonable based on the NCWI values. The villages which will get benefitted were identified. Field check has been carried out and it is observed that the sites are quite suitable.

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Identification of suitable sites for surface rainwater harvesting in the drought prone Kumari River basin, India in the context of irrigation water management
2023, Journal of Hydrology
Water scarcity is one of the most pressing concerns facing the world in the 21st century. The groundwater reserves are being depleted at a much faster rate than they can be replenished by precipitation. This problem can be avoided through the proper identification of rainwater harvesting sites and management of the water resources. Kumari River basin is a semi-arid, hard rock landscape where water scarcity has been a serious concern for decades. The main objective of this research is to identify suitable sites for surface rainwater harvesting (SRWH) in Kumari River basin using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) techniques. To estimate the SRWH sites in the Kumari basin, 12 factors are taken into consideration. The suitability map is classified into 4 classes of which 20.26% show high suitability zones, 32.74% are moderately suitable zones, 29.40% are less suitable zones and 17.60% are unsuitable zones. The validation has been done by Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve using the 52 existing check dam sites, whose predictive accuracy value is 87.4%, which indicates an excellent accuracy rate of the model. Through this study, sites for the construction of SRWH structures, including 32 suitable check dam sites, 17 earthen dam sites, 35 percolation tank sites, 24 farm pond sites, and 19 gulley plug sites, have been proposed. The findings of this study will help policymakers and planners in developing sustainable water resources management plans and scientific strategies to enhance irrigational potentiality.
SiteFinder: A geospatial scoping tool to assist the siting of external water harvesting structures
2022, Agricultural Water Management
Citation Excerpt :
Water harvesting techniques are described as ‘external’ when they collect water originating from rainfall that has fallen elsewhere, while ‘in-situ’ water harvesting involves collecting rainfall on the surface where it falls (Helmreich and Horn, 2009). Many previous studies have used Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to find potential locations for water harvesting structures without the need for field visits (e.g., Padmavathy et al., 1993; Al-Adamat, 2008; Ziadat et al., 2012; Kadam et al., 2012; Krois and Schulte, 2014; Al-Khuzaie et al., 2020). These methods invariably bring together different datasets, from remote sensing and digitised maps, often combined with hydrological modelling, and explore the decision-making space within the GIS environment.
Water harvesting has a long history, but still plays an important role today by increasing crop productivity, combatting erosion, and improving water supplies. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are used extensively to assess the suitability of sites for water harvesting but available tools fail to consider the synoptic topography of sites. Here, we report the creation of a novel, automated tool – “SiteFinder” – that evaluates potential locations by automatically calculating site-specific information, including structure parameters (height, length, and volume) and descriptors of the zone affected by the structure (storage capacity and area of influence) and the catchment area. Innovatively, compared to existing tools of this kind, SiteFinder works within a GIS environment. Thus, it allows the possibility of combining its outputs with larger Multi-Criteria Decision-Making processes to consider other bio-physical, socio-economic, and environmental factors. It utilises a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and automatically analyses thousands of potential sites, computing site characteristics for different barrier heights that are dependent on the surrounding topography. It outputs values of eight parameters to aid planners in assessing the characteristics of sites as to their suitability for water harvesting. We conducted case studies using 30 × 30 m gridded DEMs to automatically evaluate several thousand sites and, by filtering the tool outputs, successfully identified sites with characteristics appropriate for scenarios at three spatial scales: large dams for nationally significant water supply reservoirs (383 sites analysed; 5 filtered sites with barriers up to 30 m in height); large gully erosion control dams for regional-scale interventions (4,586 sites analysed; 6 filtered sites with barriers up to 3.6 m in height); and local, community-based earth embankment projects (801 sites analysed; 6 filtered sites with barriers up to 2 m in height). A higher resolution (1 × 1 m) terrain elevation model, derived from open-source airborne survey data, was used to assess the veracity of these results. Correlations between the barrier length, impounded area and storage volume capacity derived from the two different resolution data sets were all strongly significant (Spearman’s rank correlation, p < 0.001); and normalised root mean square errors were 9%, 15% and 16% for these parameters, respectively.
Assessing, mapping, and optimizing the locations of sediment control check dams construction
2020, Science of the Total Environment
Citation Excerpt :
Over the years, the studies regarding check dam site selection carried out in various parts of the world predominantly applies conservative statistical approaches coupled with remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) (Huang et al., 2009; Ramakrishnan et al., 2009; Castillo et al., 2014; Dai, 2016). Padmavathy et al. (1993) used the weighted overlay approach to select the best locations for check dam construction. Several studies employed knowledge-based approaches such as multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) to determine the best sites for check dam construction (Ibrahim et al., 2019; Ildoromi et al., 2019; Mugo and Odera, 2019).
Check dams are considered to be one of the most effective measures for conservation of the soil and water resources. However, identifying the most suitable sites for the installation of check dams remain quite demanding. This research investigates and compares five machine learning algorithms (MLAs) – boosted regression trees (BRT), multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS), mixture discriminant analysis (MDA), random forest (RF), and support vector machine (SVM) – for generating check-dam site-suitability maps (CDSSMs) and assessing them in Firuzkuh County, Iran. First, the locations of 475 existing check dams were monitored, registered, and divided into calibration (70%) and testing datasets (30%) for training and validation of the models. Fourteen check-dam conditioning factors (CDCFs) were selected and checked for multicollinearity. The relative importance of the CDCFs assessed using the elastic net (ENET) algorithm. Results demonstrated that distance from river (DFR) and drainage density (DD) to be the most significant factors for mapping the suitable sites for the erection of check dams. This research revealed that all of five MLAs had excellent accuracy for predicting the check-dam site-suitability with high AUC values: RF (0.966), SVM (0.878), MARS (0.878), MDA (0.844), and BRT (0.843). The most accurate model (RF) showed that 16.95%, 35.55%, 31.08%, and 16.42% of study area comes under low, moderate, high, and very high suitability classes. The outcome achieved by this research will be helpful to sustainability planners and managers in constructing check dams at suitable sites for better conservation of soil and water resources.
A multi-criteria decision analysis approach towards efficient rainwater harvesting
2020, Journal of Hydrology
Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) is becoming one of the most promising alternative sources of fresh water which can be potentially captured and utilized, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions (ASARs). However, identification of potential sites for RWH on a large scale has always been a great challenge, and therefore, requires further studies. Most recent studies on this topic select RWH zones employing Geographic Information Systems (GIS), combined with multi-criteria analysis and hydrological models. Nevertheless, there are a few studies, mostly in small catchments, that locate potential zones considering socio-economic factors. In this paper, a GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is presented to identify potential RWH areas incorporating socio-economic factors including distance from drainage networks, roads, urban areas, faults, farms and wells. The proposed methodology was implemented at a large catchment scale in Mashhad Plain Basin with an area of 9762 (km²) located in the northeast of Iran. Results show that 48% of the study area is not suitable for RWH. The rest of the study area is divided into three potential zones that are poor, moderate and good for RWH, covering 31%, 43%, and 26% of the potential areas, respectively. Ponds and pans, check dams and terracing were considered as the best practices for the good RWH potential areas. Preliminary estimates suggest that up to 158, 135 and 110 M m³ of precipitation could be received respectively by each system.
Rainwater harvesting: Practiced potential for Integrated Water Resource Management in drought-prone Barind Tract, Bangladesh
2019, Groundwater for Sustainable Development
Present study aims to aid for sustainable management plan of the study area by assessing the potentiality of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) following Bangladesh Water Act (BWA) 2013 and implementing its pilot model through Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) technique as a scientific outcome. The livelihood in the area is at high risk due to drought-situation and expansion of groundwater based irrigated agriculture over the last decade. The stream network and watersheds have been delineated for assessing the potentiality of surface water conservation. The implemented RWH process includes technologically modified dug well recharge and recharge well, runoff water conservation in re-excavated ponds, Kharies along with constructed check dam, and Beels. The annual bimodal distribution of rainfall has high harvesting potentiality during rainy season along with direct runoff amount of 1215 mm. The total harvested amount of rainfall from rooftop, settlement area and cultivated area are 9670869 m³, 145329128 m³ and 730431628 m³ respectively with total amount of 885431625 m³.The total harvested amount of rainfall and runoff water can fulfill 71% of the total water demand of household and agriculture. After implementation of MAR technique situation started to reverse, that is GWT started rising in response to the augmented groundwater recharge artificially. Analyzed physical, chemical and bacteriological parameters of groundwater quality for pre- and post- MAR technique application stages found suitable for drinking purpose. Before implementation of surface water management scheme water was available for three to five months but after implementation it is round the year. Moreover, the implemented RWH schemes and cross dam, reduce pressure on groundwater withdrawal and provide benefits to farmers particularly women for domestic uses, pisciculture, duck rearing etc., pinpoint '4R' principles of IWRM. Beneficiaries are happy about the inclusiveness and sustainability of schemes with most positive attitude for IWRM practice in study area.
Site selection for rainwater harvesting structures in Kiambu County-Kenya
2019, Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Science
In this study, a geospatial approach has been utilised to identify suitable sites and structures for rainwater harvesting in Kiambu County, Kenya. Based on an integrated use of remote sensing and GIS, ideal sites for five rainwater harvesting structures (bench terraces, check dams, percolation tanks, contour bunds and contour ridges) have been developed for potential runoff harvesting. SRTM GDEM and Landsat 8 are utilised to process thematic land-use layers in ENVI 4.7 environment and to map other thematic layers in ArcGIS environment. KENSOTER soil database and TRMM monthly precipitation data are also used in the study. The SCS-CN runoff generation technique is used to integrate land-use/cover and hydrologic soil group layers in a runoff depth determination. The lineaments used are analysed in the PCI Geomatics environment. All the thematic layers are assigned weight depending on the capacity of infiltration and runoff characteristics. A weighted overlay analysis is applied to obtain a layer showing suitable areas for rainwater harvesting structures by rank. The suitable areas’ layer is integrated further with other structural considerations layers to determine spatial positioning for each rainwater harvesting structure. Results show that 14, 9, 10, 8, and 14 locations in the entire County are suitable for check dams, percolation tanks, bench terraces, contour ridges, and contour bunds respectively.

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Checkdam site selection using GIS approach

Abstract

Principles of Geographical Information Systems for Land Resources Assessment

Calculating the expected dollar loss from a major flood

ARC/INFO Manual

Facility Siting Model

ARC/INFO Training Course Manual

An integrated approach for development of hill areas using satellite and collateral data — A case study from India