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Hydrological Process Monitoring for Springshed Management in the Indian Himalayan Region: Field Observatory and Reference Database


Affiliations
1 Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247 667, India
2 People’s Science Institute, Dehradun 248 001, India
 

The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) has experienced accelerated changes in climatic seasonality and land use–land cover. Researchers envision understanding the process controls of water fluxes and their hydrogeological and ecological implications but scarce in situ data in the IHR hinders scientific research. Our work discusses an integrative technique for springshed monitoring for insights into hydrological processes and understanding integrated measurement strategies. Initial emphasis was on instrumentation and data collection from two headwater watersheds, instrumented with advanced field-based monitoring platforms in Pauri-Garhwal and Almora districts of Uttarakhand. We describe the observatory setup and discuss the pilot sites’ general characteristics followed by the monitoring concept, infrastructure and initial datasets of the pilot sites. The social dimension of the spring water use and governance is also analysed in brief. Such a springshed management approach is the way forward for water security in the IHR.

Keywords

Automatic Weather Station, Evapotranspiration, Hydrological Observatory, Montane Ecosystem, Springshed Management.
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  • Hydrological Process Monitoring for Springshed Management in the Indian Himalayan Region: Field Observatory and Reference Database

Abstract Views: 252  |  PDF Views: 86

Authors

Bhargabnanda Dass
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247 667, India
Sumit Sen
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247 667, India
Anita Sharma
People’s Science Institute, Dehradun 248 001, India
Sana Hussain
People’s Science Institute, Dehradun 248 001, India
Nitin Rana
People’s Science Institute, Dehradun 248 001, India
Debashish Sen
People’s Science Institute, Dehradun 248 001, India

Abstract


The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) has experienced accelerated changes in climatic seasonality and land use–land cover. Researchers envision understanding the process controls of water fluxes and their hydrogeological and ecological implications but scarce in situ data in the IHR hinders scientific research. Our work discusses an integrative technique for springshed monitoring for insights into hydrological processes and understanding integrated measurement strategies. Initial emphasis was on instrumentation and data collection from two headwater watersheds, instrumented with advanced field-based monitoring platforms in Pauri-Garhwal and Almora districts of Uttarakhand. We describe the observatory setup and discuss the pilot sites’ general characteristics followed by the monitoring concept, infrastructure and initial datasets of the pilot sites. The social dimension of the spring water use and governance is also analysed in brief. Such a springshed management approach is the way forward for water security in the IHR.

Keywords


Automatic Weather Station, Evapotranspiration, Hydrological Observatory, Montane Ecosystem, Springshed Management.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv120%2Fi5%2F791-799