Rainwater harvesting (RWH) potential assessment for micro-watersheds in highly urbanized city using geo-spatial techniques

Pinak Ranade, Y.B. Katpatal

Rapid growth of cities across the world is leading to heavy pressure on water resources with many urban centers facing crisis in water supply. Still, the water quality supplied is not-potable, services are irregular, water wastage is high, with much of the poor strata not having access to piped water, and corporations do not collect the funds needed for maintenance and operation. To address this crisis, many urban centers are investing in expensive water supply rehabilitation and expansion projects, often with the assistance of the World Bank and other agencies. However, little is being done to protect the sources of water. Urban watersheds and their biodiversity are being degraded by uncontrolled use, resulting in poorer water quality; threats to human health, seasonal water shortages & aquifers are being polluted and depleted. As the water crisis continues to become severe, there is a dire need of reform in water management system and revival of traditional systems. Scientific & technological studies need to be carried out to assess present status so as to suggest suitable mitigative measures for the revival to traditional system/wisdom. Revival process should necessarily be backed by people's initiative and active public participation. In order to properly manage the changing conditions, knowledge and estimation of the available resources and applying their relation with the population is of utmost importance. The paper deals with extraction of such information with the help of spatial techniques. This paper deals with estimation of the amount of rainwater harvesting potential for micro watersheds of Nag river watershed using geo-spatial techniques.