SEDIMENTATION STUDIES FOR LOWER MANAIR AND KADDAM RESERVOIRS IN ANDHRA PRADESH

Abstract

In the development of any nation, optimal harnessing of, natural resources like, water resources, petroleum, mineral resources etc are essential. In the case of water resources, the development of storage schemes/reservoirs plays a crucial role. The prototype observations on the storage schemes have shown that. sediment deposits in live and dead storages also reduces the planned utilizations of the reservoir. Hence, it is essential to estimate the sediment accurately and then initiate suitable steps for checking the sediment deposition in reservoir. Actually, the sedimentation process is a complex phenomena, it mainly depends on many factors like soil characteristics, hydrological conditions reservoir operation etc . These factors vary from reservoir to reservoir, and it is difficult to estimate accurately the probable rate of sedimentation and its location in reservoir at the planning stage. Inmost of the reservoirs, it is found that the design rate of sediment estimation is often less than the actual rate of sediment deposition, as determined subsequently. With the advent of Remote Sensing Technology, it has become convinient to utilise the satellite data easily for estimating the rate of sedimentation by mapping various waterspread area contours at different elevations. This technology is being used in many developed countries for carrying out reservoir sedimentation studies successfully, as compared to the conventional methods like hydrographic survey, etc,....