Towards Effective Geospatial Techniques for Watershed Management - A Case Study from Manipur, India

For proper management of the watershed and to give the best intervention, reliable and up-to-date information is required on various attributes like morphology of the watershed, accurate delineation, soil and their characteristics, land use/land cover, slope aspect, hydrogeomorphology, drainage pattern, and order. The use of geospatial techniques forms an integral part of such studies and provides ways for the rapid collection of field data and prompt data processing. In the present study, a locale-specific watershed development plan was generated for the case study area of Churachandpur District (including Pherzawl) of Manipur, India, using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-1C), Linear Imaging Self Scanner (LISS-III&IV) satellite data along with other legacy data, existing maps, and field observation data have been utilized for generating a land use/land cover map and to extract information on morphological parameters. Thematic maps like hydrogeomorphology, geology, drainage and soil maps, which are essential prerequisite for watershed development, are generated for the study area. Spatial analysis was done for the generation of flow accumulation, flow direction, slope aspect, etc. The study attempts to explore the significant land use changes, especially in open forest, open scrub, cultivated lands, water bodies, and wastelands of three years with an interval of five years, 2005–06, 2010–11, and 2015–16. Out of the total treatable area of 1696.44 km2, 81.97 km2 requires immediate intervention for a water conservation plan. The total drainage length, consisting of only rivers, of the study area was found to be 872.80 km, occupying an area of 32.66 km2, which is 0.72% TGA.