DSS applications for Water Resources Managementin Kerala state

17 Jan 2015 Water Informatics Session

India Water Week New Delhi

Model of Bharathapuzha River Basin inDSS Software

Hydrological parameters (including groundwater parameters in accordance with the latest GEC) in the basin was fine tuned using NAM & Mike Basin

Benefits from DSS

• More than 20 applications were developed using DSS tools, which assisted the Higher authorities to make informed decisions in the water resources sector

• Improvements in the quality of hydrological data. The DSS tools were used to validate the discharge and reservoir data and errors in data acquisition procedures were identified.

• Trainings on DSS at the state was attended by Hydrology Engineers and presently around 25 engineers can handle the DSS tools

• The Server installed under DSS can be accessed by the users of the data and has enabled the integration of Ground water and Surface water data.

• Government had decided to apply DSS to all River basins of Kerala for improved water resources planning.

New technological practices in water resources sector adopted by the team for the development of applications during the DSS periods

• The Rainfall-Runoff modeling tool NAM was used to obtain runoff of un- gauged stations, to ascertain water availability at select locations in river, to extend the available time series etc.

• MIKE Basin was used to model the allocation of available water to different users, to model reservoir operation, to determine the optimum reservoir capacity by varying the dam height etc.

• The Digital Elevation Models were used to trace the river, to delineate catchments for selected river locations, to prepare contour lines, to find depression in terrain for developing into a reservoir, to find reservoir volume, to find area of submergence etc.

• Proficiency in GIS software. The major & minor rivers of Kerala were digitized during HP I. Preparation of 3D maps.

• The use of GPS was improved by loading custom made shape-files to transfer locations of proposed dams and inundation area to ground at site.

The project was analysed using the DSS tools and an alternative proposal was made without forest submergence and also an increased peak hour power

THE PROJECT

The aim of the project was to

provide water to the rain shadow

regions of Kanjikode & Kozhinjapara

area in Palakkad district

HISTORY

The project was conceived 3

decades ago but did not materialize

due to submergence of forest area &

Uneconomical hydroelectric power

potential

Application I - Kuriarkuty Karapara Irrigation Project

As per the DSS proposal, locations and

height of the dams were changed

Reservoir was shifted to non forest area.

Approx. Cost of the project would be 1500

Crores

Benefits Water availability at rain shadow region

increases by 90Mm3 during summer.

Peak hour production of power of 200 MW.

Only diversions dams and No forest submergence

Savings of huge preliminary

investigation cost and man hours

The Government is convinced about the new proposal and as per order No. IDRB/ISW/AD1/433/2012 dated 15.12.14 a technical committee has been

constituted to conduct further detailed investigation for the preparation of DPR

A project proposal amounting to 7.5 crores was submitted to the Government and the scheme is expected to be included in the State Budget for the year 2015-16

Total ground water recharge from all the structures – 1.919 MCM/Year

Application II - Artificial Recharge Viability Analysis

The monsoon of 2012 was very weak and the

reservoir level of Peppara dam which supplies

drinking water to Trivandrum city was alarmingly

low by the end of south west monsoon period in

September 2012.

The problem was analysed with DSS tools and DSS

team was able to provide suggestions on optimal

reservoir operation like curtailing the power

production, which was implemented and

uninterrupted drinking water supply was ensured.

Moreover the viability of construction of 3 check

dams proposed at a cost of 15 crores was

analysed using DSS tools and was found to be

ineffective and hence dropped.

Application III - Managing Drinking water supply to Trivandrum city

The drinking water supply of

Kollam city is from Sasthankotta

fresh water lake, which has only

12 km2 of catchment area. During

the drought of 2012-13, the lake

started drying up and reached the

lowest recorded level.

Application IV - Alternate source for drinking water to Kollam City

An alternate source (Kotakayal lake with catchment area of 160 Km2) was proposed by the DSS

team. On analysis it was found that this saline lake could be converted to fresh water lake by

constructing a 50 m bund at the exit in down stream direction thereby preventing the saline

water intrusion. The fresh water availability on construction of bund was analysed with DSS tools

and yielded fruitful results.

The drought of 2012-13 called for the revival of

Vamanapuram Irrigation Project, which was once abandoned

because it could cause forest submergence and also there

was opposition from the local people. The revival of the

project will improve the drinking water availability of

Trivandrum city and irrigation requirement of Vamanapuram

Basin.

DSS team made an alternate proposal of construction of

two small dams to divert water from Vamanapuram basin

with minor reservoir to existing Peppara reservoir. The

proposal was analysed using DSS tools and the integrated

operation of 3 reservoirs were modeled in DSS software

and was found feasible.

Application IV - Augmenting drinking water supply to Trivandrum

The Meenachil River dries up during the

dry weather causing water scarcity in the

Kottayam city and other towns on its

bank. The adjacent Muvattupuzha River

is having steady flow through out the

year, being in the downstream of large

hydroelectric scheme at Idukki. The

possibility of diverting some of the tail

water from Muvattupuzha to Meenachil

was analysed in Mike Basin.

Application V - Analysis of river linking

1.Conjunctive Use

The acute water shortage at the tail end of Chittur irrigation project ayacut area was analysed and a plan for conjunctive use of ground water and canal water was proposed .

2.

Check dam locations in Bharathapuzha, Chalakkudy, Meenachil and Pambar Basins

The check dam locations were identified in the 4rd and 5th order streams and in the main rivers to improve the ground water recharge and to improve the dry weather flow in the main river. The locations were identified using ASTER DEM and Google earth. Field verification was done by the field officers for ascertaining the suitability of sites. The recharge values were calculated from DSS software.

3.

Water Quality moduleThe pilot basin Bharathapuzha, does not pose much water quality issues, but the application was developed to explore the capabilities of DSS Water quality tool in other River basins. The BOD parameters were taken up for studies and the data of WQ stations of CWC were used.

Other Important DSS applications

4.Irrigation module

An attempt application on Irrigation module was carried out for Chittur area in Bharathapuzha basin. The application was successfully run for a canal network.

5.

Water yield of the basinThe water availability of the Bharthapuzha basin was computed as part of the preparation of Water Atlas for the state. Simulated discharge of the sub basins for the last 30 years had been obtained from the available rainfall data and was tabulated. The water availability for various Lift irrigation schemes were also analyzed.

6.

Integrated Reservoir DataSimulated data of seven reservoirs in the Basin was integrated using DSS (P) Software spread sheet module. Inflow, Water level, Demands etc. can be viewed and exported to MS Excel. This will help Officers involved in Reservoir planning to take decisions on Water allocation.

7.Study on transfer from Silent Valley to Malampuzha reservoir Feasibility of water transfer from abandoned silent valley project was taken up using DSS tools.

8.Flood mitigation studies- Kuttanad

Flooding studies were conducted using DSS tools in Kuttanad wetland area where 5 major rivers empty to Vembanad lake. Alternate diversion channel to sea without entering the area were identified and reported.

9.

Flood mitigation studies- Thampanoor, TrivandrumThampanoor at the heart of the Trivandrum city experiences frequent flooding. The problem was analyzed with DSS tools to ascertain the quantity of flood water and time of concentration to propose diversionary Channel.

10.

Viability analysis of Dams at Murinjapuzha, Pattissery…Proposal of a storage dam in Manimala river by a local expert was reported in the newspapers. The area was surveyed with Digital Elevation Models and operation of reservoir was modeled in DSS. The terrain is steep in nature and hence the reservoir storage for even high dam is low. The proposal was dropped after the DSS analysis.

11.

Hydro-electric potential of Pazhukkakanam dam siteA hilltop with 4.5km2 catchment area in Meenachil Basin was having a waterfall of 200m in the rainy season. There was a proposal to install a mini hydropower station for taping the power potential. Hydropower module of the DSS software was used to model the Power availability. The proposal was uneconomical as per DSS analysis and hence dropped.

12.

Leachate intrusion study of Vilappilsala solid waste disposal siteThe solid waste disposal site of the Trivandrum city was polluting the nearby Karamana river and the City Corporation wanted solution to mitigate it. The area was studied for ascertaining the ground water & surface water flow and remedial measures were suggested

13.

Data rectification using DSS toolsThe rainfall runoff model - NAM was used to model catchment areas of the gauging stations to verify the observed discharge. The simulated discharge from NAM using measured rainfall was used to validate the data collected by the field stations. Some discrepancies were identified in the collected data and the data acquisition procedures were changed.

14.

Developing IWRM for BasinThe Integrated Water Resources Management were introduced in the Basin report prepared by the Hydrology wing. The role of various stake holders of the basin was redefined and a comprehensive study of Shiriya basin was undertaken.

Thank You