Site-Specific Land Resource Inventory for Scientific Planning of Sujala Watersheds in Karnataka

Land Resource Inventory (LRI) for Sustainable Watershed Development-A Case Study of Bisarahalli-1 Microwatershed of Semiarid Region of Koppal District, Karnataka, India

“…Watershed deterioration is a common phenomenon in most parts of the world. The major factors causing watershed deterioration are deforestation, improper land use, erosion, climate change and other anthropogenic activities [2]. The evident in the form of soil erosion, salinity/alkali, forest loss and vegetation and finally decreases in agricultural production in the watersheds.…”

“…The evident in the form of soil erosion, salinity/alkali, forest loss and vegetation and finally decreases in agricultural production in the watersheds. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a sustainable land management system for the watersheds that does not cause or at least prevent further degradation of such valuable resources [2]. The challenges posed by the continuing degradation and declining factor productivity of the resource base are very site specific and can be tackled only by addressing the concerned issues at the farm or watershed level by evolving rational, site specific and viable land use options suitable for each and every land holding at the village or watershed level [2,3].…”

“…Therefore, it is necessary to develop a sustainable land management system for the watersheds that does not cause or at least prevent further degradation of such valuable resources [2]. The challenges posed by the continuing degradation and declining factor productivity of the resource base are very site specific and can be tackled only by addressing the concerned issues at the farm or watershed level by evolving rational, site specific and viable land use options suitable for each and every land holding at the village or watershed level [2,3]. The required data for farm level planning can be obtained by carrying out LRI that describes and characterizes the nature of land resources, their constraints, inherent potential and suitability for various land-based rural enterprises, crops and other uses for preparing location-specific action plans [2].…”

“…The challenges posed by the continuing degradation and declining factor productivity of the resource base are very site specific and can be tackled only by addressing the concerned issues at the farm or watershed level by evolving rational, site specific and viable land use options suitable for each and every land holding at the village or watershed level [2,3]. The required data for farm level planning can be obtained by carrying out LRI that describes and characterizes the nature of land resources, their constraints, inherent potential and suitability for various land-based rural enterprises, crops and other uses for preparing location-specific action plans [2]. It is with this objective that the Watershed Development Department of Karnataka has initiated Sujala-III Project funded by the World Bank for the planning and development of watersheds on scientific basis in eleven selected districts of Karnataka covering an area of 14.06 lakh ha across 2534 microwatersheds benefitting about 9 lakh households by adopting the modern methods of Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS for generating land resource information at farm level [2,3].…”

“…The advent of GIS and GPS has added a new dimension to resources survey and information integration. By interfacing RS with GIS and GPS, different management scenarios can be processed allowing the resource manager to analyse various management alternatives and come out with the best and most suitable alternative [2]. Hence, the study was carried out with the objectives to collect site specific data base, to provide farm specific crop choices, to evolve location specific soil and water conservation measures and to provide datasets and inputs needed for planning, implementing and monitoring of all land based developmental programmes to develop tools, packages and thematic outputs.…”