GIS based DSS for Watershed Management

Assessment of runoff distribution

N.H.Rao
NAARM
Problem Definition
Decisions associated with watershed management are centred
around water
Decisions are based on assessment of the hydrologic processes
that occur over it principally runoff
Different soil, land slopes, land cover and management practices
affect runoff differently
Resources and processes vary spatially
Large watersheds consist of several subwatersheds connected
hydrologically by a stream network
Decisions require assessments of runoff and its distribution over
the subwatersheds
To develop a decision support framework for watershed
management based on characterizing the watershed into:
subwatersheds and
homogenous units with respect to subwatersheds,
rainfall, soils and land use
for assessment of runoff and its distribution over the
watershed
Objective
Defining equation:
Runoff = f(slope, soils, land use, rainfall)
GIS Database Design
Spatial Data layers:
contours (slope) - subwatersheds
soils
land use
rainfall distribution
Attribute data: rainfall, soils (hydrologic group)
Data available
watershed map (KK3 watershed in Mahbubnagar district,
area about 435 sq km) showing stream network, tanks,
settlements in 1:50000 scale
soil map of Mahbubnagar district (1:250000 scale)
SOI toposheets (56 L 6,7,11 which cover the watershed -
1:50000 scale)
Land use land cover map (created in ERDAS 1:50000)
Rain gauge station locations in Mahbubnagar district
(1:250000 scale)
Procedure
create spatial database of watershed in ArcGIS digital layers of
- boundary
- streams
- tanks
- settlements
- contours (merging contours of 3 SOI toposheets and clipping
them with the watershed boundary)
- soils (by clipping from the district soils map with the watershed
boundary)
- rain gauge stations (Thiessen polygons by clipping from district
rain gauge network map)
delineate watershed into subwatersheds
- create Digital Elevation Model (DEM) from contours and streams
- convert grid to coverage
- delineate subwatersheds
Procedure (contd..)
create homogenous hydrologic response units (HRU) by
overlay of:
- subwatersheds
- soils
- land use
- rain gauge station Thiessen polygons

compute runoff from each HRU and subwatershed using
runoff equation for any input rainfall
generate thematic maps of runoff for HRUs, subwatersheds by
interactive input of rainfall data
















Creation of Digital Database of Watershed
Digitizing Watershed map
for
Boundary
Settlements
Water tanks
Stream
Network
Contours Soils

Land
Use/Land
Cover

Rainfall
Distribution-
DEM

Flow Direction grid
Sink grid

Watershed delineation
Grid to Coverage Conversion
Sub Watershed Boundary
Hydrological Response Units (CN Unit)
Runoff Computation and Thematic Mapping
Rainfall
data from
database
OVERLAY
Thiessen
Polygons
Delineation of watershed into
subwatersheds
Stream
Derivation of Soil data layer of
watershed .
Creating rain gauge station
Thiessen polygons layer ..
Creating land use land cover data
layer .
Creating data layer of hydrologic response units
by overlay of data layers:
subwatersheds
soils
Rain gauge station Thiessen polygons
Land use
Calculation of runoff from each
HRU .


Soil Group

Land use

A

B

C

D

Dense Vegetation

65

75

82

86

Sparse Vegetation

70

79

84

88

Waste Land

71

80

85

88

Water Bodies

100

100

100

100

Curve Number Values
Distribution of curve numbers
Q=(P 0.2S) / [(P 0.2S) + S)]
Run off Depth Q (in mm):
S = (25400/CN) 254
P = Rain fall Depth in mm
Run off Volume(Cubic Meters):
= ( Q*(Shape_Area)/1000)
From GIS