Water Spread Area Research Articles

Erratum: Dynamics of urban development patterns on thermal distributions and their implications on water spread areas of Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

Erratum: Dynamics of urban development patterns on thermal distributions and their implications on water spread areas of Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

Dynamics of urban development patterns on thermal distributions and their implications on water spread areas of Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

Recent satellite maps have reported that India is experiencing extreme heat waves, surpassing even Middle Eastern countries. This study addresses a critical gap in understanding how land use land cover (LULC) changes impact land surface temperature (LST), urban heat intensity (UHI), and water spread area (WSA) in rapidly growing cities such as Vellore and Katpadi over three decades (1997–2024). We used Landsat thermal bands and the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm to investigate LULC and LST patterns, examining the effects of urbanization and water body reduction on local climate dynamics. The LULC results showed an increase in built-up lands from 5.89 to 25.89%, while zooming water areas shrank from 3.15 to 1.02%. LST showed a significant increasing trend, with temperatures for water bodies and vegetation ranging from 17.4°C to 26°C, and for barren and built-up areas from 28°C to 42.6°C. The results of the multivariate analysis revealed a positive correlation between LST and the Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) and negative correlations between LST and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), and the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI). Moreover, spatial and time series analyses of WSAs indicated a significant increase in LST. Furthermore, a strong negative correlation was found between WSA and LST, with a 10% decrease in WSA potentially increasing LST by 0.12°C to 0.55°C in surrounding regions. This study offers important contributions to improving land use policy and water resource management in urban areas, while addressing environmental concerns related to rising temperatures. The findings underscore the urgency of mitigating heat impacts and managing water resources in rapidly expanding cities. Our results provide valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners aiming to develop more sustainable, resilient, and livable urban environments.

Synergizing google earth engine and earth observations for potential impact of land use/ land cover on air quality

Changes in land use and land cover are imperative drivers of climate change in urbanization. The conversion of land use modifies the physical and thermal characteristics of the land surface and also has an impact on the air quality. This study aims to assess the potential impact of land use and land cover (LULC) on the air quality in Gujarat state, India for 6 years, 2018, 2020, and 2023. Six land-use types, water bodies, forest, agricultural land, built-up, barren land, and scrubland obtained from the Landsat 8 land cover product processed in Google Earth Engine (GEE), where LULC of each category was estimated. The analysis findings indicated that variations in pollution response to LULC change exhibit distinct differences across different regions, influenced by natural factors or human activities like deforestation and urbanization. Over the years 2018–2023, agricultural land seems to consistently decrease in area, but urban areas saw exponential growth. The combined percentage of agricultural land and forest area slightly decreased from 61.08% to 60.7%, while the water spread area increased from 4.07% to 5.13%. The category of bare land decreased from 29.59% to 27.56%, mainly due to urbanization converting bare soil into built-up areas. The Sentinel-5P satellite data was used to estimate atmospheric pollution i.e., carbon mono-oxide (CO), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Methane (CH4), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), and formaldehyde (HCHO). Over the past decade, a significant portion of land use land cover has transitioned from forest to vegetation areas in the western region, while urbanization has rapidly expanded in the eastern and central-western parts.

Reservoir Sedimentation Assessment Using Geospatial Technology: A case Study of Dukan Reservoir, Sulaimani Governorate, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

The accumulation of sediment in reservoirs poses a major challenge that impacts the storage capacity, quality of water, and efficiency of hydroelectric power generation systems. Geospatial methods, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS), were used to assess Dukan Reservoir sediment quantities. Satellite and reservoir water level data from 2010 to 2022 were used for sedimentation assessment. The satellite data was used to analyze the water spread area, employing the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) to enhance the water surface in the satellite imagery of Dukan Reservoir. The cone formula was employed to calculate the live storage capacity of the reservoir within two elevations. According to the study results, the live storage capacity of Dukan Reservoir at elevation 511.78 m had decreased from 8000 MCM to 7007.77MCM and 6923.53 MCM using NDWI and MNDWI respectively, due to sedimentation, resulting in a capacity loss of 14.59% and 15.83% for NDWI and MNDWI respectively. The annual sedimentation was 13.78 MCM and 14.95 MCM for NDWI and MNDWI, respectively. Joglekar's equation and Khosla's formula have demonstrated that the sedimentation rate in the Dukan reservoir exceeds the critical rate. The findings of this study will inform the development of sediment management strategies aimed at preserving the reservoir's capacity.

Geo-informatics Approach for Sustainable Aquaculture Expansion: A Case Study on Mapping the Availability of Water Spread Area and Fish Production Potential in Manar Reservoir, Maharashtra

Geo-informatics Approach for Sustainable Aquaculture Expansion: A Case Study on Mapping the Availability of Water Spread Area and Fish Production Potential in Manar Reservoir, Maharashtra

Detection and mapping of water and chlorophyll-a spread using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery for water quality assessment of inland water bodies.

Water quality monitoring of reservoirs is currently a significant challenge in the tropical regions of the world due to limited monitoring stations and hydrological data. Remote sensing techniques have proven to be a powerful tool for continuous real-time monitoring and assessment of tropical reservoirs water quality. Although many studies have detected chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations as a proxy to represent nutrient contamination, using Sentinel 2 for eutrophic or hypereutrophic inland water bodies, mainly reservoirs, minimal efforts have been made for oligotrophic and mesotrophic reservoirs. The present study aimed to develop a modeling framework to map and estimate spatio-temporal variability of Chl-a levels and associated water spread using the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) and Maximum Chlorophyll Index (MCI). Moreover, the impact of land use/land cover type of the contributing watershed in the oligo-mesotrophic reservoir, Bhadra (tropical reservoir), for 2018 and 2019 using Sentinel 2 satellite data was analyzed. The results show that the water spread area was higher in the post-monsoon months and lower in the summer months. This was further validated by the correlation with reservoir storage, which showed a strong relationship (R2 = 0.97, 2018; R2 = 0.93, 2019). The estimated Chl-a spread was higher in the winter season, because the reservoir catchment was dominated by deciduous forest, producing a large amount of leaf litter in tropical regions, which leads to an increase in the level of Chl-a. It was found that Chl-a spread in the reservoir, specifically at the inlet sources and near agricultural land practices (western parts of the Bhadra reservoir). Based on the findings of this study, the MCI spectral index derived from Sentinel 2 data can be used to accurately map the spread of Chl-a in diverse water bodies, thereby offering a robust scientific basis for effective reservoir management.

A Pioneering Assessment on the Physico-chemical and Health Status of a Small Sub-tropical Reservoir in North-Eastern, India

Background: The water resources of Northeast (NE) Indian reservoirs have been largely overlooked, despite their immense potential in various aspects. A comprehensive analysis of water quality parameters was conducted to assess the physio-chemical changes and health status of Maphou or Mapithel reservoir, Manipur, NE, India. Methods: Sub-surface water samples were collected from June 2021 to May 2022 to assess the spatio-temporal changes. Trophic State Index (TSI), Morpho Edaphic Index (MEI), Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) and fish yield potential were calculated. The average water spread area was calculated through Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI) method. Result: A total of eighteen (18) water quality parameters were examined following Standard Methods. ANOVA analysis indicated that all water quality parameters, except total alkalinity, exhibited significant seasonal variations (p less than 0.05). Spatially, most of the water quality was found to be insignificant, except for Chl-a and depth (p less than 0.05). All the water quality parameters were within acceptable ranges for the growth and survival of aquatic biotic resources. No signs of pollution were observed. The trophic status of the reservoir was found in an oligotrophic state. The MEI was estimated as 8.55 and the average fish yield for the reservoir was 14.98 kg ha-1, which is below the national average yield of small reservoir (49.9 kg ha-1). The MSY was estimated to be 21.46 kg ha-1. Heatmap cluster analysis revealed three distinct clusters of months. The actual average water spread area was determined to be 852.62 ha, hence the reservoir can be categorised as small reservoir.

The Effect of Habitat Manipulation on Early Gonad Maturation of Channa striata in Captive Condition

Background: With remarkable growth in aquaculture, the need for system diversification and species diversification has been demanded by the producers to gain fruitful output in terms of profit. Striped murrel, Channa striata has been identified as a suitable species for modern aquaculture systems in terms of species diversification due to their fast growth rate, air-breathing nature, higher market price and consumer acceptance. The major bottlenecks in seed production of murrel are captive maturation and short spawning window. To overcome these problems, an attempt was made to achieve early gonadal maturity of striped murrel in captive conditions by intervening in the brooder rearing habitat. Methods: In this regard, four habitats were tested in duplicates, namely T1 - Tank with clean reservoir water without macrophytes and soil base, T2 - Tanks provided with floating (Water hyacinth, Eichhornia sp) and submerged (Waterthyme, Hydrilla sp) aquatic macrophytes without any soil base, T3- Tanks provided with only soil base (15-20 cm) without any macrophytes and T4 - Tanks provided with both soil base and macrophytes. Result: At the end of the three-months rearing phase, the fishes provided with macrophytes and soil base (T4) resulted in early maturation characterized by an egg size of around 1.29±0.21 mm and the majority of late granular stage oocytes and spermatozoa in ovary and testes, respectively. The results concluded that providing a bottom soil base of 15-20 cm and covering the 20-30% water spread area using aquatic macrophytes in the brood rearing tank helped in the gonadal maturation of striped murrel during pre-monsoon in captive conditions.

Occurrence of Fish Diseases in Tanks and Ponds of Karnataka State

Irrigation tanks in Karnataka state, India with a total water spread area of 235,000 ha constitute a potential fishery resource. Fish culture in tanks and ponds in rural Karnataka has developed recently into a significant commercial enterprise. Intensification of aquaculture practice in these water bodies has led to the incidence of diseases and considered to be one of the major limiting factors for the expansion of aquaculture in the region. The observations made on parasites and diseases of fishes in Karnataka state are meagre and mostly with an academic interest (Srinivaschar and Sunderbai, 1974). Keeping these points in view, an investigation for diseases was carried out for two years during 1989-91 in Mandya, Mysore, Kolar, Chickmagalur, Bangalore and South Canara (SC) districts to build up a data base.

Crop Diversification Assessment in Tank Ayacut Areas of Lower Palar Sub-Basin of Chengalpattu District, Tamil Nadu, India Using Geo-Spatial Techniques

For the assessment of crop diversification in the major tank Ayacut area of the Lower Palar sub-basin in Chengalpattu district of Tamil Nadu, research works were carried out using Sentinel 2 optical data by relating with ground truth data, to identify the crops in pixel-based classification and further classified the crops using Random Forest machine learning algorithms. The total area estimated under crop classification was 15767.97 and 28818.17 ha respectively for the summer seasons of 2018 and 2021. Since, the summer season experiences high crop diversification. The water spread area and water volume of tanks estimated were 612.31 and 1177.89 ha and 6,39,248 and 14,06,056 m3 respectively for 2018 and 2021. The accuracy assessment of ground truth points by confusion matrix reveals an overall classification accuracy of 96.8% (2018) and 94.9 % (2021) with kappa scores of 0.96 and 0.94 respectively. The crop diversification assessments were estimated using the Simpson Index of Diversity and values of 0.63 and 0.68 were accounted for in 2018 and 2021 respectively. The diversified pattern of crops is significantly correlated with tank water availability which increased the cropping area in 2021 as confirmed by the Crop Diversification factor.

Estimation of Water Spread Area in Selected Tanks of Cuddalore District of Tamil Nadu Using Sentinel-1A SAR Data

The most important aspect of water resource planning and management is mapping and regular monitoring of surface water bodies. Remote sensing has become most widely used method for measuring and monitoring of water body dynamics due its temporal and spatial availability of high-resolution data. A study was conducted to map and estimate the water spread area in the tanks of Kattumannarkoil block of Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu using Sentinel-1A SAR satellite data. European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1A data provides high quality SAR data which is used widely for monitoring of crop and water resources. The acquisition and preprocessing of satellite data was done using Google Earth Engine. The obtained satellite image from Google Engine was processed using ArcGIS. The water spread area was derived from the processed data using thresholding approach. The back-scattering values generated through pre-processing ranges from -18.00 db to -28.12 db for August 2022 (Pre-rainy season), -15.85 to -26.96 for December 2022 (Post-rainy season) and -15.55 to -24.82 for April 2023(Summer time). The estimated water spread area in selected 12 Tanks were 37.191 ha, 58.34 ha and 59.971 ha on 19th August 2022, 17th December 2022 and 16th April 2023 respectively.

Assessment of Tank Water Spread Area in Cheyyar Sub Basin Using Sentinel 1A Data

A research study was conducted for estimating the water spread area of tanks in Cheyyar sub basin for the year 2022. Tanks are low-cost irrigation water source and play a key role in recharge of ground water. Mapping and regular monitoring of tanks plays an important role in water resource planning. Sentinel-1A SAR data has high potential in estimating water spread area as it is unaffected by cloud cover, light or weather conditions. After processing the obtained satellite data using SNAP software, the water spread area was obtained by threshold approach. The backscattering (dB) value ranged between -30.641 and 22.898 during the course of study. The total water spread area was noticed maximum and minimum during the month of January and July with 5728.20 ha and 1123.44 ha (21.88% and 4.29 % of total tank area) respectively. The total rainfall received in Cheyyar sub basin was about 1290 mm. The water spread area seems to be proportional to the rainfall of previous and current months.

Assessment of Groundwater Quality around Nagole in Hyderabad

Water is one of the most essential elements for survival of living organism. Water consumption of a person is 135l/c/day. In current scenario, due to increase in population leads to occupy the rivers space. Now a days due to deteriorating natural water bodies, human depends upon sub surface water and ground water to meet their daily needs. In future these subsurface water source also become deteriorate due to over exploitation. In future it leads to subsurface and surface water scarcity so, many researchers finding alternate sources, sustainable water management techniques for proper monitoring the present sources to reduce water demand. There are 400 small and biglakes available in Hyderabad City. Out of which 169 lakes were notified by Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) for protection and conservation of water spread area. We have selected Nagole in Hyderabad City of Telangana state for conducting a study on assessing groundwater quality. Thirteen parameters were chosen for the analysis such as pH, EC, Total dissolved solids, Turbidity, Alkanlinity, Chlorine, Sodium, Potassium, Total hardness, BOD, COD, Fluorine, Sulphate. Finally, results of the analysis were compared with water quality standards such as BIS 10500 (1991) of water sample. From this study, it was observed that EC exceeded the Permissible limit which impacts of more ion presence in the samples, alkalinity also higher than the permissible limit. The high content of alkalinity in water results in formation of chemical scale or precipitate which would clog piping or form a scale on filter, sodium exceeds the permissible limit. These parameters were higher in few sampling station while other parameters were within the permissible limits

Assessment of Surface and Ground water Quality in Hyderabad

Water is one of the most essential elements for survival of living organism. Water consumption of a person is 135l/c/day. In current scenario, due to increase in population leads to occupy the rivers space. Nowa days due to deteriorating natural water bodies, human depends upon sub surface water and ground water to meet their daily needs. In future these subsurface water source also become deteriorate due to over exploitation. In future it leads to subsurface and surface water scarcity so, many researchers finding alternate sources, sustainable water management techniques for proper monitoring the present sources to reduce water demand. There are 400 small and big lakes available in Hyderabad City. Out of which 169 lakes were notified by Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) for protection and conservation of water spread area. We have selected Himayath Sagar, Osman Sagar, Peerzadiguda in Hyderabad City of Telangana state for conducting a study on assessing groundwater quality. Thirteen parameters were chosen for the analysis such as pH, EC, Total dissolved solids, Turbidity, Alkanlinity, Chlorine, Sodium, Potassium, Total hardness, BOD, COD, Fluorine, Sulphate. Finally, results of the analysis were compared with water quality standards such as BIS 10500 (1991) of water sample. From this study, it was observed that EC exceeded the Permissible limit which impacts of more ion presence in the samples, E.Coli, Coliforms, TBC, Alkalinity, Sodium is higher than the permissible limit in Himayath Sagar and Peerzadiguda. The high content of EC, E.Coli, Coliforms, TBC, Alkalinity in water results in formation of chemical scale or precipitate which would clog piping or form a scale on filter, These parameters were higher in few sampling stations of study area while other parameters were within the permissible limits

Fretful Longevity of Upper Kolab Reservoir, Odisha by GIS Study

Background: The nonrenewable energy source, hydropower reservoirs are the yardstick that scales up developing countries around the globe including India. The multipurpose Upper Kolab project is housed at the Kondhan Hills of the north Eastern Ghats mobile Belt range near Koraput Town. The dam is of length 630.5m with a height of 54.50m, and an average annual flow1803 M cum in operation since 1986. The project was built for 320MW generation, about 445000Ha CCA, and water supply to nearby towns.
 Objective: Climate Change and anthropogenic stresses have resulted in depleting the major reservoir’s capacity by sedimentation, hence irrigation and power generation. The southern part of the Northeastern Ghats belt is worst affected. The present study is about the rate of capacity loss of Upper Kolab Reservoir in south Odisha.
 Methodology: The present study involves the collection of data from the Landsat 4, Landsat 5, and Landsat 8 OLI Operational land user image of 30 m resolution was downloaded from either SRTM data or Earth Explorer data, and the digital elevation model (DEM) was prepared for the same period of the years 1996, 2002, 2013, 2017 and 2021. The TOPO geological map (1:500,000 scale) of 1983 was used to digitize geological formations. The ArcGIS 10.2 software is used for the topographic constraints of the water body and its watershed. The maps generated are slope maps, aspect maps, and various differentials sediment values in volume and water spread area.
 Results and Conclusion: The inference is the fast rate of annual sedimentation @3.542mm/yr which is much higher than its mother basin Godavari (@2.22mm/yr. The longevity of the Upper Kolab Reservoir and power generation shall be affected earlier before it is designed life. Sedimentation needs prioritization, as caused by the anthropogenic and climate-induced huge sediment entry to the upper Kolab reservoir warranting a secondary reservoir downstream.

A remote sensing approach to explore the available water spread for fisheries development in the reservoirs of Godavari River Basin, Telangana, India

Reservoirs have tremendous fisheries potential amongst the inland water resources and aptly referred as ‘sleeping giants’, as the fish yield potential of these resources are yet to be tapped. Existing gaps in the availability of absolute information and data on the inland water resources hinder the applicability and implementation of various fisheries development programmes, which in turn impact inland fisheries production. The present study was carried out in the reservoirs viz., Sri Ram Sagar, Kaddam and Swarna from the Godavari Basin, covering the period 2016-2021, as a case study to demonstrate the use of remote sensed data in fisheries stock enhancement planning. The perennial and seasonal water spread area of the reservoirs under study, estimated through composite water maps prepared using Sentinel 2A data ranged between 8 to 19 and 4 to 29%, respectively. Further, the potential area for enclosure fish culture (both cage and pen culture) in these reservoirs were found to range between 14.89% (Sir Ram Sagar) to 48.54% (Kaddam). The field validated results revealed less than 0.1% of the perennial water spread area mapped in these reservoirs is under use for cage culture. This highlights under-utilisation of these reservoirs and demonstrates scope for developing enclosure fish culture or other culture-based fisheries for enhancing the fish production. The study also demonstrates the use of geospatial tools in development planning for expanding enclosure fish culture in the reservoirs and in turn enhancing fisheries production from the reservoirs in India. Keywords: Composite water maps, Enclosure fish culture, Geospatial tools, Godavari River, NDWI, Reservoir, Sentinel 2A data, Water spread area

Detection of Water Spread Area Changes in Eutrophic Lake Using Landsat Data.

Adequate water resource management is essential for fulfilling ecosystem and human needs. Nainital Lake is a popular lake in Uttarakhand State in India, attracting lakhs of tourists annually. Locals also use the lake water for domestic purposes and irrigation. The increasing impact of climate change and over-exploration of water from lakes make their regular monitoring key to implementing effective conservation measures and preventing substantial degradation. In this study, dynamic change in the water spread area of Nainital Lake from 2001 to 2018 has been investigated using the multiband rationing indices, namely normalized difference water index (NDWI), modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI), and water ratio index (WRI). The model has been developed in QGIS 3.4 software. A physical GPS survey of the lake was conducted to check the accuracy of these indices. Furthermore, to determine the trend in water surface area for a studied period, a non-parametric Mann–Kendall test was used. San’s slope estimator test determined the magnitude of the trend and total percentage change. The result of the physical survey shows that NDWI was the best method, with an accuracy of 96.94%. Hence, the lake water spread area trend is determined based on calculated NDWI values. The lake water spread area significantly decreased from March to June and July to October at a 5% significance level. The maximum decrease in water spread area has been determined from March to June (7.7%), which was followed by the period July to October (4.67%) and then November to February (2.79%). The study results show that the lake’s water spread area decreased sharply for the analyzed period. The study might be helpful for the government, policymakers, and water experts to make plans for reclaiming and restoring Nainital Lake. This study is very helpful in states such as Uttarakhand, where physical mapping is not possible every time due to its tough topography and climate conditions.

Use of geographical information systems (GIS) in assessing ecological profile, fish community structure and production of a large reservoir of Himachal Pradesh.

The present study demonstrates the spatial analysis and mapping of fish and different measures of environmental parameters and fish diversity of Pong reservoir, Himachal Pradesh, using Kriging spatial interpolation methods for geographical information system mapping. Seasonal data on environmental parameters, potential fish habitat and fish diversity was collected from lentic (dam), lentic (reservoir), transitional and lotic zone of the reservoir.. Important environmental parameters like water temperature, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, water depth and transparency showed variations across the different zones of the reservoir. The sediment of the reservoir was sandy clay loam in nature as per texture analysis. Fish species richness, Shannon index and evenness index showed a similarity of the lotic and lentic (reservoir) zones of the reservoir. Six potential fish breeding grounds were identified in the reservoir indicating high conservation significance. The analysis of data showed a declining trend in fish production from 456.9 tonnes during the decade 1976-1987 to 347.91 tonnes during 2009-2020. The factors like anthropogenic climate change, predation of a stocked fish juvenile by water birds, undersized fish stocking and unscientific management are the probable reasons for the decreasing fish production. The spatial variation pattern of the water spread area, environmental parameters, fish catch and potential fish breeding grounds depicted in the GIS platform can be used as an important information base by the policy makers for fisheries management. The stocking of large size fish as a stocking material and adequate protection of the potential fish breeding grounds are the key advisories for the sustainable enhancement of fisheries as well as conservation.

Mapping Spatio-temporal Variations of Surface Water Area of Tanks in Coimbatore Corporation Using Google Earth Engine

Surface water is one of the most significant elements of the earth's ecosystem. It is the basic information for analysing the changes in the environment. Therefore it is important to monitor water resources accurately. Nowadays remote sensing plays a major role in extraction of water spread area. In this study, change in water spread area of tanks was mapped for Coimbatore corporation from 2000 to 2021. The analysis was performed in Google earth engine platform using Landsat ETM+ and Landsat OLI datasets. The images for pre monsoon and post monsoon season were scrutinized and classified using random forest classifier in Google earth engine. The area of each tanks and their deviations were calculated for the study period. Results of the study showed that the lowest water spread area was observed in the period from 2000 to 2005 for both pre monsoon and post monsoon season. The tank has maximum water spread area during post monsoon season. The difficulties that has been confronted during the research is the unavailability of images due to cloud cover. The study shows that the random forest classifier can be effectively used to extract water features and water spread area.

A Gis-Based Parametric Analysis of Irrigational Tanks in the Oldest Civilized City in India-Madurai

The irrigational tanks being traditional Water harvesting structures designed by rulers and chieftains dating back centuries. These are constructed in such a way that they act as a major water resource in drought-prone rural communities. The main aim of this paper is to develop a GIS-based Parametric Maps of Maximum Capacity(MC), Maximum Water Level(MWL), Ayacut Area(AA), Water Spread Area(WSA), Sub-basins and Basins of irrigational Tanks which form the basic irrigation information system to assist agriculturalists, farmers, and Government organization for the proper maintenance of irrigation tanks with suitable indexing parameters, to mitigate & forecast the water and food requirements by evaluating currently available water for the given population density and irrigation lands. The study area selected is the oldest civilized city in India which is in the state of Tamilnadu-Madurai district, which is served by the Vaigai River and consists of 1338 tanks. This GIS-based information system assists the decision-makers to perform surveillance, evaluate the efficiency of the tank at any space & time and take proper managerial methods to utilize the resources economically.