Page 1 - WSZ&D

PREDICTION OF WATER SCARCITY ZONES & DROUGHTS USING

DECISION SUPPORT TOOL (DSS) ON WEBGIS FOR MAHARASHTRA STATE

A. Introduction

Groundwater Surveys & Development Agency (GSDA) with the joint efforts
of UNICEF, Mumbai, IRAP, Hyderabad and MRSAC, Nagpur has successfully
completed a pilot project for predicting drinking water scarcity and drought in
Jiwati taluka of Chandrapur district in the year 2015. As a part of project activity,
web based decision support tool - "Mahabhujalvedh", designed and developed by
MRSAC, under the guidance of GSDA. The application was based on real time
monitoring of rainfall and groundwater levels in the taluka provided weekly by the
department. Based on the above, GSDA approached MRSAC for upscaling the
project for entire Maharashtra under Jalswarajya II program and UNICEF support.

B. Objective

Following are the objectives of the project activity based on the interaction with
GSDA & its allied department and MRSAC,

1. Mapping of observation wells (OBW) and rain gauge stations using Mobile
app provided by MRSAC.
2. Development of web portal - MAHABHUJALVEDH for scarcity prediction &
analysis based on the ground water levels send by GSDA’s jalsurakshaks
through online mechanism.
3. Generate unique code for all observation wells.
4. Generate unique code for all Rain Gauge Stations.
5. Historical data analysis (Based on the data available with GSDA at
district/taluka level).

C. Methodology

MRSAC will develop mobile application for mapping of assets -
Observation wells (OBW) and Rain gauge stations (RG), to the department. For
this initially, the department officials will need to identify these assets at village
level. The GSDA official will carry out the field visit and collect the following
information with the help of the mobile application.

- 1 -

MRSAC,Nagpur ©®
MRSAC,Nagpur ©®