GROUND WATER STUDIES OF SOLANI CATCHMENT WITH THE HELP OF AERIAL PHOTOS

Abstract

A hydrologist or a water resources specialist is mainly concerned with the simple but very significant problem r- 'How much water of any tyre of ooeuranee, will be at any given point at any given time to serve any given purpose. This obviously leads him to find ways anc'l means to investigate the nature of occuranee . movement, distri-bution and uses of water. In comparison to the growing demands for water-utilisation in this agro-industrialised and over-populated region, the potable surface water is inadequate and as such rapid and scientific searches for ground water resources have become an acute necessity to the researchers. Also groi.id water, to-day is an important source of usable water throughout the world. Since 1947, it has been steadily gaining importance in this sub-continent in respect of water supply. The contribution of ground water to total irrigation in India is about 40% It is worth mentioning that ground water rumpage in India is very close to that in U.S A. which is about 25 billion U.S.gallons per day and this is expected to increase tremendously in the near future, Among the different methods for evaluation of ground water, the application of photo-technique is gaining popularity and hence much emphasis is being given to it iv now-a-days. In fact, there is little field left in hydro-logical studies where pr Ito-technique ccnnot be used. The tremendous development in photography has, of late, made it easier to apply this technique successfully in quick and economic evaluation of ground water resources also. An attempt has been made in this study to evaluate the ground water condition in the 'Solani Catchi ent by use of aerial photo-analysis. The catchment occupies a small portion of the Indo-Gangetic alluvia which is considered as the world's richest ground water reservoirs. Using four years data (1973 - 74 to 1976-77) of rainfall at five raingauge stations and water level fluctua-tion data of thirteen observation wells within/near the basin an attemDt has been made to evaluate specific yield of aquifer with land use and re5etative cover information tinder four categories obtained by analysis of aerial -photographs. It has been found that specific yield varies between 10% to 20% for the aquifer depending upon method of analysis and year. The average specific yield obtained from data of (1973-74) to (1975-76) also gives a good prediction of water level fluctuations in wells for the year 1976-77.