Sustainable Watershed Development

This book presents a case study on a semi-arid region, Maharashtra State, India, and discusses problems concerning a broad range of areas: sustainable watershed development; watershed management; groundwater condition; land and resource development plans; thematic maps on e.g. land use, soil types and soil erosion; groundwater recharge site selection; remote sensing and GIS; and soil and water conservation structures. The book’s focus is on creating a land and water resource development plan and environmental management for groundwater recharge development using remote sensing and GIS technology in the case study region, which is situated in the Akola and Buldhana districts of Maharashtra. Its goal is to promote awareness for sustainable watershed development and planning in semi-arid regions by highlighting the problems of, and plans for, groundwater and surface water pollution and sustainable watershed development. These aspects are of great importance to watershed and natural resources planning and management, and need to be exploited and managed sustainably. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to all scientists, research scholars and graduate students of remote sensing, hydrology, hydrogeology, water resource engineering, agricultural engineering and related areas who want to acquire detailed information on watershed planning and sustainable water resource planning in semi-arid regions, or to find new methodologies and techniques for studying the feedback mechanisms between forms and processes.