Watershed Management Practices Research Articles

Evaluation of spatial and temporal water and soil quality in the Buffalo and Brays Bayou watersheds of Houston, Texas

The Buffalo and Brays Bayous are two of the primary drainage channels in the city of Houston. Both the Buffalo and Brays Bayou Watersheds (BBW, BrBW) are impacted by frequent flooding, rapid urbanization and intense land cover changes. The goal of this research is to assess and compare the soil and water quality and land cover changes in the BBW and BrBW. The specific objectives of the study are 1) to monitor and assess the nutrient and metal concentrations in the water and soil samples along the Buffalo and Brays Bayou, 2) to map the long-term land cover changes within these urban watersheds, and 3) to assess the effect of land cover changes on the bayou discharge, water and soil quality of the watersheds. Water and soil samples from several locations along the Brays and Buffalo Bayous were collected during multiple seasons and processed for chemical analysis. Our water sample analysis revealed that the Cu, As and Pb concentrations were higher in the fall compared to the summer and exceeded the critical limit in both the bayous. The soil analysis indicated that the Zn and Pb concentrations were higher in the fall over summer season and exceeded the background concentrations in both BBW and BrBW. The remote sensing analysis revealed that there was a 145% and 140% increase in impervious surface and 34.8% and 34.5% decrease in the vegetative surface in the BBW and BrBW, respectively, due to urbanization during 1984–2019. The contamination of soil and water in BrBW is substantially higher than the BBW. The results of this study provide insights for adoption of best sustainable management practices in urban watersheds.

Farmers’ Attitude On Different Watershed Management Practices: A Case of Tende and Kibuon Catchments in South West, Kenya

Farmers’ Attitude On Different Watershed Management Practices: A Case of Tende and Kibuon Catchments in South West, Kenya

Quantifying uncertainty cascading from climate, watershed, and lake models in harmful algal bloom predictions

In response to increased harmful algal blooms (HABs), hypoxia, and nearshore algae growth in Lake Erie, the United States and Canada agreed to phosphorus load reduction targets. While the load targets were guided by an ensemble of models, none of them considered the effects of climate change. Some watershed models developed to guide load reduction strategies have simulated climate effects, but without extending the resulting loads or their uncertainties to HAB projections. In this study, we integrated an ensemble of four climate models, three watershed models, and four HAB models. Nutrient loads and HAB predictions were generated for historical (1985–1999), current (2002–2017), and mid-21st-century (2051–2065) periods. For the current and historical periods, modeled loads and HABs are comparable to observations but exhibit less interannual variability. Our results show that climate impacts on watershed processes are likely to lead to reductions in future loading, assuming land use and watershed management practices are unchanged. This reduction in load should help reduce the magnitude of future HABs, although increases in lake temperature could mitigate that decrease. Using Monte-Carlo analysis to attribute sources of uncertainty from this cascade of models, we show that the uncertainty associated with each model is significant, and that improvements in all three are needed to build confidence in future projections.

Water quality sampling methods may bias evaluations of watershed management practices

Accurate measurement of the discharge of total suspended solids (TSS) from watersheds is complicated by the extreme temporal variability of suspended solid concentrations during periods of high stream flow. Consequently, TSS loads estimated from data collected at different temporal frequencies may differ in accuracy and precision. Moreover, there remains a need for optimal sampling methods which yield the highest possible accuracy for the least effort. We investigated the effect of sampling frequency on estimations of TSS loads and retention within a restored stream in Maryland, USA. We found that coarser temporal sampling methods can lead to erroneous conclusions of restoration efficacy with poor accuracy and precision in estimates of sediment retention. Additionally, we synthesized 28 years of continuous turbidity-based TSS data from Europe and North America to assess the effect of sampling frequency. Our synthesis suggests that flow-paced composite sampling may be the most accurate and precise sampling method. This method is also economical, requiring analysis of only one sample per week. Thus, the flow-paced method may be a potential solution to economize and standardize water quality monitoring.

Watershed degradation and management practices in north-western highland Ethiopia.

Watershed degradation in Ethiopia has become a major environmental threat and caused significant damages both in the natural environment and the development of human society. This paper assesses an overview of the extent, causes, and effects of watershed degradation and the management actions in north-western highland Ethiopia, taking the Rib watershed as a case study site. The data were collected from field observations, interviews, and questionnaire surveys administered to 210 farmers. The results show that watershed degradation is a serious and widespread problem in the study site.The major causes of watershed degradation include population growth, uncontrolled grazing, unsustainable land use and management practices, and weakland ownership system. Watershed degradation, mainly in the form of soil erosion, has adverselyreduced agricultural production and worsened food insecurity and poverty in the study area. Various watershed management practices that combine structural and biological measures have been practiced to curb the problem. However, the farmers' decisions to adopt and implement the measures have been highly influenced by arangeof socioeconomic, biophysical, and institutional factors. Access to support services, size of the farmland, educational level, and plot ownership were found to influence farmers' decisions positively at a statistically significant (P < 0.01) level. It needs efforts to create farmer environmental awareness and develop strong watershed management standards and guidelines. The watershed could benefit from hand in hand efforts of local farmers, concerned governmental agencies, and researchers.

A multirate mass transfer model to represent the interaction of multicomponent biogeochemical processes between surface water and hyporheic zones (SWAT-MRMT-R 1.0)

Abstract. Surface water quality along river corridors can be modulated by hyporheic zones (HZs) that are ubiquitous and biogeochemically active. Watershed management practices often ignore the potentially important role of HZs as a natural reactor. To investigate the effect of hydrological exchange and biogeochemical processes on the fate of nutrients in surface water and HZs, a novel model, SWAT-MRMT-R, was developed coupling the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) watershed model and the reaction module from a flow and reactive transport code (PFLOTRAN). SWAT-MRMT-R simulates concurrent nonlinear multicomponent biogeochemical reactions in both the channel water and its surrounding HZs, connecting the channel water and HZs through hyporheic exchanges using multirate mass transfer (MRMT) representation. Within the model, HZs are conceptualized as transient storage zones with distinguished exchange rates and residence times. The biogeochemical processes within HZs are different from those in the channel water. Hyporheic exchanges are modeled as multiple first-order mass transfers between the channel water and HZs. As a numerical example, SWAT-MRMT-R is applied to the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River, a large river in the United States, focusing on nitrate dynamics in the channel water. Major nitrate contaminants entering the Hanford Reach include those from the legacy waste, irrigation return flows (irrigation water that is not consumed by crops and runs off as point sources to the stream), and groundwater seepage resulting from irrigated agriculture. A two-step reaction sequence for denitrification and an aerobic respiration reaction is assumed to represent the biogeochemical transformations taking place within the HZs. The spatially variable hyporheic exchange rates and residence times in this example are estimated with the basin-scale Networks with EXchange and Subsurface Storage (NEXSS) model. Our simulation results show that (1), given a residence time distribution, how the exchange fluxes to HZs are approximated when using MRMT can significantly change the amount of nitrate consumption in HZs through denitrification and (2) source locations of nitrate have a different impact on surface water quality due to the spatially variable hyporheic exchanges.

Towards sustaining watershed management practices in Ethiopia: A synthesis of local perception, community participation, adoption and livelihoods

The sustainability of the environmental management programs such as watershed intervention program relies on the understanding of the nexus of the community’s perception, participation, and livelihoods. However, there are little studies on the interactions of these very important parameters. This study examined the nexus of farmers’ perception, participation, livelihoods and their implication for sustaining watershed management program in Ethiopia, case of upper Gibe basin. To this end, household survey, focus group discussion and key informant interview were employed to collect and analyze the data. Likert-scale was used to rate the indicators or items of perception, participation, socio-ecological indicators; Coefficient of Crobach alpha to test the reliability of items; Independent t-test to compare the mean value of livelihood assets between program participant and non- participant households and Rader diagram to depict the overall livelihood assets value. Descriptive (mean, percentage) analysis was use summarize the results of local perception, community participation, socio-ecological benefits of watershed management while, chi-square statistics were applied to analyze the association between important components of watershed management such as local perception, community participation, intensity of adoption and livelihoods. The results of the study indicated that local communities were well aware of the degradation of watershed as a problem constraining agricultural production in their farm lands and surrounding landscapes. Problems of watershed degradation were better perceived in the upper and middle topographic settings and for watershed program participant households implying the need for site-specific appropriate watershed management alternatives. While the ecological benefits of watershed management were perceived better in the upper topographic areas, the socio economic benefits were in the middle and lower areas suggesting an integrated approach to address the biophysical and socioeconomic conditions. The overall community participation index value showed moderate levels of participation indicating that only some decisions were taken in consultation with local people. Specific adoption rates for many of the practices and the intensity of adoption were low. There were gaps in the progress of the five dimensions of livelihood assets-human, natural, financial, social, physical. The interaction of perception, participation and livelihoods in watershed management practices suggested more participatory and integrated approach need to be encouraged to upscale and sustaining of watershed management practices. Less awareness and extension services, lack of finance, interest in short-term agricultural production are the major challenges constraining the sustainability of watershed management. Hence, local administrators and planners need to recognize heterogeneity in households’ socio economic and topographic specific characteristics as well as the aforementioned constraints so as to involve community fully in various activities of watershed management. The nexus between watershed management and ecosystem services, climate change and variability are areas for future research.

Farmland size increase significantly accelerates road surface rill erosion and nutrient losses in southern subtropics of China

Farmland size increase (FSI), which is an increase in operational size and consolidation of fragmented croplands, is considered an effective scheme to improve agricultural productivity and reduce fertilizer use with environmental protection benefits. But FSI involving road extension can enhance rill formation on road surfaces, and increase road erosion and associated nutrient losses in a watershed. These effects have not been experimentally quantified yet. Thus, we determined the changes in road surface rill erosion and associated nutrient losses in response to FSI before (2017) and after (2018), in an intensive sugarcane production area within Nala watershed, in southern subtropics of China. We divided the watershed into three sub-watersheds (lower (S1), left (S2) and right upper (S3) regions), and surveyed three categories of roads: (i) old roads (existing roads before 2017), (ii) new roads (constructed in 2018), and (iii) old-new roads (repaired and extended old roads in 2018). The road surface rill erosion and associated nutrient losses were much higher in the lower region (S1) than the upper regions (S1 and S2) of the watershed due to variations in field density (number of farms per unit area) and traffic intensity. Field density reduced by 53 % while traffic intensity increased by 41 % after FSI. Following FSI, annual road surface rill erosion, nitrogen, phosphorus and organic carbon losses increased by 88 %, 79 %, 67 %, and 46 %, respectively. Road surface rill erosion had a significant inverse relationship with field density (R² = 0.535, P < 0.05) but positively correlated with traffic intensity (R² = 0.728, P < 0.01). The accelerated N and P losses offset the decrease in fertilizer use by 5–22 % due to FSI. Our results highlight the significance of including soil erosion in FSI scheme for environmental protection. Accelerated road erosion following FSI should be minimized by integrated soil and watershed management practices.

Streambank Legacy Sediment Contributions to Suspended Sediment‐Bound Nutrient Yields from a Mid‐Atlantic, Piedmont Watershed

AbstractWhile streambank legacy sediment has been increasingly recognized as an important contributor of fine sediment to watersheds, little is known about its contributions to suspended sediment‐bound nutrients. This uncertainty is exacerbated by the ubiquitous presence of legacy sediments in valley‐bottoms of the Mid‐Atlantic region of the United States. Using a sediment fingerprinting model, we quantified suspended sediment and sediment‐bound nutrient sources for a 114 km2 agricultural, Piedmont watershed. Sediment sources included agricultural, developed, and forested soils as well as streambanks legacy sediments. Suspended sediment and sediment‐bound nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations were determined for 10 storms over the study period of August 1, 2017 to July 31, 2018. Streambanks contributed 50% of the annual suspended sediment yield of 1,348 kg/ha followed by agricultural (49%) and forested (1%) soils. Streambanks amounted to 26% and 32% of the suspended sediment‐bound N and P exports, respectively, whereas the corresponding loads from agricultural sources were 73 and 67%, respectively. Bank contributions varied with storm magnitude and seasonality, with the highest exports associated with the largest peak flows. These results highlight that streambank sediments constitute a significant fraction of suspended sediment‐bound nutrient exports and must be considered in watershed models, regulatory assessments, and management practices.

Improving the crop productivity in rainfed areas with water harvesting structures and deficit irrigation strategies

Watershed management practices aim at improving the agricultural productivity in rainfed agricultural areas by conserving rainwater for an extended period. The stored rainwater in the harvesting structures is used for meeting crop water demand. The water use efficiencies of these structures can be further enhanced through adoption of deficit irrigation management strategies. In this study, deficit irrigation scheduling is formulated using a simulation-optimization framework for a rainfed agricultural area with supplemental irrigation from a check dam in Kondepi IWMP area, near Kondepi Mandal, Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh, India. The results from the study indicate that the adoption of irrigation management strategies have the potential to improve the productivity and bring more area under irrigation with an increase of 20% and 140% for yield and irrigated area respectively. The outcomes of this study indicate that the proposed method can be suggested for developing optimum irrigation strategies under water deficit in rainfed agriculture having water harvesting structures for an efficient utilization of stored rainwater.

Effects of Elevated Sea Levels and Waves on Southern California Estuaries During the 2015\u20132016 El Ni\xf1o

The 2015–2016 El Niño provided insight into how low-inflow estuaries might respond to future climate regimes, including high sea levels and more intense waves. High waves and water levels coupled with low rainfall along the Southern California coastline provided the opportunity to examine how extreme ocean forcing impacts estuaries independently from fluvial events. From November 2015 to April 2016, water levels were measured in 13 Southern California estuaries, including both intermittently closed and perennially open estuaries with varying watershed size, urban development, and management practices. Elevated ocean water levels caused raised water levels and prolonged inundation in all of the estuaries studied. Water levels inside perennially open estuaries mirrored ocean water levels, while those inside intermittently closed estuaries (ICEs) exhibited enhanced higher-high water levels during large waves, and tides were truncated at low tides due to a wave-built sand sill at the mouth, resulting in elevated detided water levels. ICEs closed when sufficient wave-driven sand accretion formed a barrier berm across the mouth separating the estuary from the ocean, the height of which can be estimated using estuarine lower-low water levels. During the 2015–2016 El Niño, a greater number of Southern California ICEs closed than during a typical year and ICEs that close annually experienced longer than normal closures. Overall, sill accretion and wave exposure were important contributing factors to individual estuarine response to ocean conditions. Understanding how estuaries respond to increased sea levels and waves and the factors that influence closures will help managers develop appropriate adaptation strategies.

Major Constraints of Watershed Management Practices in Ethiopia and Ways Forward

Watershed management gives an opportunity for understanding and reconciling the interconnections among various land use systems. Watershed management has an old history that can be related to ancient mankind agricultural activities though the holistic way of conserving natural resources under watershed. There are various opportunities under watershed management such as jobs, getting benefits, conserving nature and reducing negative impacts together. However, there are challenges arises during implementing the watershed management in different watersheds. The challenges should be clearly identified and forwarding solution should be given for policy and decision makers in order to improve the successes and benefits of watershed management in Ethiopia. The aim of this review was to identify the constraints of watershed management measures in Ethiopia and provide ways forward in tackling the challenges. Watershed management was officially initiated and practiced in Ethiopia for five decades and some successes have been achieved and different degraded sites were changed to productive sites. However, the failure of different watershed management measures was observed across the country as a result of various constraints of watershed management in Ethiopia. Some of the major constraints of watershed management in Ethiopia are lack of awareness among policymakers, policy and strategy related constraints, socio-economic and biophysical constraints, capacity constraints, financial and incentive constraints and lack of community awareness. Some of the recommendations were given as follow: policy and strategies should be applied at a watershed level as it presented in the document; compressive technical capacity building training should be given to the local experts and extensionists and information center should be created for sharing data between concerned institutions and stakeholders about the technologies in watershed management practices.

Estimation of Soil Loss from Watershed for Identifying High Risk Erosion Zones Using GIS

Soil loss from watersheds significantly influences the fertility soils and natural environment and hence it is a serious concern across the globe. Soil conservation is the top priority in watershed management though it is impractical to completely control soil erosion from all parts of watershed and hence achieve soil conservation. As controlling soil erosion in watersheds at micro level is difficult, broad measures which are economical and feasible are recommended for soil conservation. In order to plan suitable conservation techniques, it is essential to prioritize watersheds based on vulnerability to soil erosion. For identifying suitable soil conservation methods, it is necessary to consider critical erosion zones, threats to lives and property, socio-economic constraints and local challenges. Assessment of soil erosion is very important for arriving at the prioritization of watersheds for soil conservation. This paper reports the findings of the study carried out on Janagoan Mandal in Warangal District with hell of GIS techniques. Estimation of soil loss from the watershed is estimated using Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). Using the data available with various agencies, average annual erosion is estimated by developing GIS maps for six major watershed parameters. The watershed has been divided into sub watersheds and prioritization study is carried out considering factors that influence soil erosion. Using GIS tool and Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), the soil loss from the watershed is estimated and high risk zones are demarked. Soil loss from 80% of the watershed area is in the range of 0 - 200 tons/ha/year, while the high risk zones of erosion are about 12% of the area. Watershed management practices are recommended to reduce the soil loss from the high risk zones.

Farmers’ decision to adopt watershed management practices in Gibe basin, southwest Ethiopia

Watershed management practices have been implemented to avert land degradation and to enhance people's livelihoods in the highlands of Ethiopia for several years. However, the successes of these practices have been quite limited and the main factors affecting these practices have not been examined in detail. This study intended to investigate rates and intensities of adoption of watershed management practices and to determine the main factors affecting farmers' adoption decisions in the upper Gibe basin. Data were collected from 304 household heads in six sub catchments across different topographic settings using household interview. Focus groups discussions, key informant interviews and transect walk observations were also used. Descriptive statistics and econometric models such as, multivariate and ordered probit were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that the majority of households (82.6 percent) used at least one of the six practices considered in this study. Soil bund, grass strip cultivation with soil bund and compost were the major watershed management practices adopted by farmers. Adoption rate and intensity of adoption were better for program participants and in upper and middle topographic settings. The results of the multivariate and ordered probit analysis indicated that household size, extension services, credit services, training services and perception of soil erosion had positive significant relationship with both rate and intensity of adoption of most practices. Hence, policy makers and planners need to consider labor, knowledge and awareness, and capital intensive nature of the practices for the up scaling planning and implementations of watershed intervention technologies.

Impacts of environmental stressors on nonpoint source pollution in intensively managed hydrologic systems

Agricultural practices intended to increase productivity can adversely affect our soil and water resources. Expected changes in climate and other social pressure are anticipated to exacerbate these impacts jeopardizing the sustainability of the agro-ecosystems. Watershed Management Practices (WMPs) are meant to achieve a rational use of resources as well as enhance ecosystem resilience to climate change. However, the effectiveness of WMPs depends on the complex interactions between processes occurring across the watershed. The objective of this study was to simulate the impacts of WMPs and projected climate on the sediment and nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) stream loads in an intensively managed watershed. The modeling framework was developed with the physically-based distributed model Mike SHE for the Upper Sangamon River Basin (USRB), an agricultural watershed in central Illinois. The fate and transport of sediment and NO3-N in the watershed and rivers was simulated using a generic advection-dispersion equation (ADE) with NO3-N and sediment as the main species. Results showed that non-structural WMPs, such as crop rotation and cover crops, presented the highest reductions of simulated NO3-N and sediment load, respectively, while structural WMPs had higher area-efficiency performance. On the other hand, climate conditions had a strong impact on the transport of both pollutants due to water fluxes alterations especially for a future dry climate scenario. Sediment transport was shown to be more sensitive to climate given that rainfall is one of the main drivers of the erosion processes. Outcomes from this research will give a more comprehensive approach toward understanding the impacts of environmental stressors at a watershed scale, and how they may be propagated to ecological systems.

The use of watershed geomorphic data in flash flood susceptibility zoning: a case study of the Karnaphuli and Sangu river basins of Bangladesh

The occurrence of heavy rainfall in the south-eastern hilly region of Bangladesh makes this area highly susceptible to recurrent flash flooding. As the region is the commercial capital of Bangladesh, these flash floods pose a significant threat to the national economy. Predicting this type of flooding is a complex task which requires a detailed understanding of the river basin characteristics. This study evaluated the susceptibility of the region to flash floods emanating from within the Karnaphuli and Sangu river basins. Twenty-two morphometric parameters were used. The occurrence and impact of flash floods within these basins are mainly associated with the volume of runoff, runoff velocity, and the surface infiltration capacity of the various watersheds. Analysis showed that major parts of the basin were susceptible to flash flooding events of a ‘moderate’-to-‘very high’ level of severity. The degree of susceptibility of ten of the watersheds was rated as ‘high’, and one was ‘very high’. The flash flood susceptibility map drawn from the analysis was used at the sub-district level to identify populated areas at risk. More than 80% of the total area of the 16 sub-districts were determined to have a ‘high’-to-‘very-high’-level flood susceptibility. The analysis noted that around 3.4 million people reside in flash flood-prone areas, therefore indicating the potential for loss of life and property. The study identified significant flash flood potential zones within a region of national importance, and exposure of the population to these events. Detailed analysis and display of flash flood susceptibility data at the sub-district level can enable the relevant organizations to improve watershed management practices and, as a consequence, alleviate future flood risk.

A salinity module for SWAT to simulate salt ion fate and transport at the watershed scale

Abstract. Salinity is one of the most common water quality threats in river basins and irrigated regions worldwide. However, no available numerical models simulate all major processes affecting salt ion fate and transport at the watershed scale. This study presents a new salinity module for the SWAT model that simulates the fate and transport of eight major salt ions (SO42-, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl−, CO32-, HCO3-) in a watershed system. The module accounts for salt transport in surface runoff, soil percolation, lateral flow, groundwater, and streams, and equilibrium chemistry reactions in soil layers and the aquifer. The module consists of several new subroutines that are imbedded within the SWAT modelling code and one input file containing soil salinity and aquifer salinity data for the watershed. The model is applied to a 732 km2 salinity-impaired irrigated region within the Arkansas River Valley in southeastern Colorado and tested against root zone soil salinity, groundwater salt ion concentration, groundwater salt loadings to the river network, and in-stream salt ion concentration. The model can be a useful tool in simulating baseline salinity transport and investigating salinity best management practices in watersheds of varying spatial scales.

KORELASI ANTARA DEBIT ALIRAN DAN SEDIMEN MELAYANG (SUPENDED LOAD) DI SUNGAI DATA’ KABUPATEN PINRANG

The hydrological process that occurs in a watershed is related to erosion process, sediment transport and downstream deposition. Land use changes and watershed management practices will also affect erosion and sedimentation. The purpose of this study was to determine the magnitude of flowrate, suspended load concentration (suspended load), and floating sediment discharge and correlation of floated sediment discharge and flowrate at the Data’ River. Measuring river characteristics is done by measuring river water flow and river slope. Sediment collection floated with EWI (equal with incerentment) method. Laboratory analysis was carried out by calculating the amount of flow discharge, sediment concentration, and sediment discharge. The results showed the lowest amount of flow discharge occurred on 17/12/2016 with a value of 0.271 m3/s with a floating sediment concentration of 17.167 mg / L, and the sediment discharge floated at 0.402 tons/day. The correlation between flow discharge and floating sediment discharge using a sccatter diagram shows that the determination value R2 is 0.9754 with the equation y = 0.1x + 0.4355.

Mitigating environmental risks: Modeling the interaction of water quality parameters and land use cover

Understanding the relationship between rivers water quality (RWQ) and landscape metrics (LMs) is valuable for developing sustainable watershed management practices and pollution/environmental risk mitigation. To do so, the current study aimed to explore the relationship between RWQ and LMs by assessing 74 sub-basins within 2 million ha in Northern Iran. Principal component analyses were used to identify principal water quality parameters. Considering the effect of composition and configuration of the Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) on pollution loads, statistical models revealed that by increasing the mean of the Fractal Dimension Index of agricultural lands, the nitrate loads will increase. The results of this study can be especially used in the environmental impact/risk assessment of new industrial and residential applications. Also, the findings of the current study could provide a perfect source for calculations and choosing the best policy making decisions.

Seasonal (Kharif, Rabi and Zaid) Precipitation, Potential Evapotranspiration and Aridity Index with Respect to Various Agro Ecological Zones of India

Abstract Climate change has very significant impact on livelihoods and food security. The geospatial technology provides a better understanding of various themes related to climate change. This study examined the seasonal (kharif, rabi and zaid) long term (1970-2000) monthly climatic parameters such as precipitation, potential evapotranspiration over the country of India. The seasonal Aridity Index was computed and analyzed with respect to various agro-ecological zones of India. The analysis of long term mean precipitation (mm) during kharif, rabi and zaid season was found to be in the range of (14-7463), (0-914) and (0-1722) respectively. The analyses of the long term mean potential evapotranspiration in all seasons was found notable high in arid/semiarid zones. The Aridity Index during kharif, rabi and zaid seasons was found to be in the range of (0.19-4.27), (0.03-0.73) and (0.01-1.48) respectively. The seasonal Aridity Index in some of the agro-ecological zones of the central India in the arid and semiarid regions was found to be notably low. A concrete plan with synergic approach including integrated watershed management and traditional ecological practices will help to fulfill crop water demand and maintain adequate soil moisture for the present and future crops.