<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Changing hydrological phenomenon and increase the water demand in all sectors create a huge problem of water scarcity. Precipitation is one and only major source to mitigate this problem. In Central India, the average annual precipitation is sufficient in most of the part but not capable to harvest and utilize during the summer season. Identification of suitable site for water harvesting structures plays a key role to enhance the water level for watershed management. In the present study, suitable sites have been demarcated to build up a water resource development plan in Mandri river watershed of Kanker district, Chhattisgarh using Remote Sensing and GIS techniques. Basic guidelines of Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development (IMSD) have been used for identifying the suitable sites for water harvesting structures. Remote Sensing and GIS are used for site suitability analysis of water harvesting structure to extract the information of various features such as lineament, land use/land cover, soil, slope, lithology, geomorphology, drainage order, rainfall etc. In order of importance, we have assigned weights to each feature. Slope and design discharge are key parameters in site suitability analysis, so that we assigned maximum weight to this parameters. A possible site suitability map for water harvesting/conservation structures was derived following an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). This work attempts to identify the probable zone for water harvesting structures such as boulder check/gabion, gully plug/bori bandhan, check dams and stop dams. Multi-criteria analysis is applied in GIS to assist the decision-makers in determining appropriate zones for water harvesting structures in view of external characteristics of the watershed. Further, using weighted overlay method, the catchment was grouped into categories of suitable or highly suitable.</p>

Flood is the major cause of fatalities associated with natural disasters in the world. In India especially in the state of Bihar, where about half of the area (North Bihar) gets flooded every year due to the overflow of major rivers during the rainy season. Which severely affects human lives, properties, agricultural production, farmers and their livelihood. Usually, the basins of the Kosi and Gandak rivers are known for their worst affects in Bihar. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is widely used for robust monitoring of flood events due to its ability to image the surface of the earth in all weather conditions. However, limited studies are available on flood patterns of Bihar and their impact on agriculture. Here, we investigated the flood extents and affected paddy rice fields for Bihar during the months of June–October (2020) using all accessible Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-2 MSI images with additional supporting datasets available on the Google Earth Engine. The study showed that a large portion of Bihar (7019 km 2 ) was submerged during monsoon season. The floodwater remains in the agricultural fields for 50 to 65 days causing severe damage to the Kharif crops, mainly rice. The extreme effect of flood was seen in agricultural lands (11.23% of the total area) and populations (15.56% of the total population) in Bihar. Satellite-based identification of flood progression and affected rice fields can be helpful for decision-makers at the time of disaster to prioritize relief and rescue operations.

This study was conducted in Katni district of Madhya Pradesh India to map the spatial variability of major soil properties using geospatial technique. Surface soil samples of 505 locations (0-15 cm) were collected by random sampling strategy using GPS. Soil physico-chemical properties were measured in laboratory. In this paper we execute and compare the accuracy of various ordinary kriging methods. Spatial variability of soil physico-chemical properties was quantified through semivariogram analysis and the relevant surface maps were prepared through ordinary kriging.