Dr Amer Mahmood

Muhammad Aurangzaib
Sara Fayyaz
APPRAISAL OF WATER VOLUME
ESTIMATION OF A DAM THROUGH
SATELLITE IMAGERY

Received: 2017 Abstract: Estimation of water volume and
Accepted: 2017 deviations in water bodies contribute in
Published online: 2017 information acute to environment
Springer-2017 variation and resource maintenance. Now
a days remote sensing assets that are
easily accessible offer exceptional
opportunity to upkeep the maintenance of
hydro measurements and processes. This
study offers an approach to estimate
volume of a Tarbela Dam through
satellite imagery and SRTM DEM
(Digital Elevation Model) of 3 arc
Dr Amer Mahmood second. We did geo-statistical exploration
Department of Space Science, on DEM for physiographic analysis and
University of the Punjab, plotted longitudinal river profile (LRP)
Lahore, Pakistan. by relating spatial scrutiny of DEM. The
E-mail: amerpakistan@gmail.com reservoir borderline is demarcated with
Tel.: +92-324-9880812
the assistance of contouring of Tarbela
Dam. In order to determined water
Muhammad Aurangzaib storage capability of water body, we have
M.Phil. (Space Science) calculated area capacity curve with the
Sara Fayyaz help of spatial analysis technique. For
M.Phil. (Space Science) outlining the catchment extend Arc
University of the Punjab, Hydro prototypical beside with stream
Lahore, Pakistan. order has used
Land cover and land use are estimated
by classifying LANDSAT 8 images.
Water volume Alteration of Tarbela
Dam for different years has displayed.
For estimation, controlling and
maintenance of water reservoir, the out-
dated scheme requisites to be transform
to Geospatial Methods. With the help of
Geographic Information System (GIS)
study and analysis we have done with
water volume appraisal and with
different evaluations land topography,
flow direction, classification etc.
Keywords Geographical Information
System, Remote Sensing, Digital
Elevation Model, Longitudinal River
Profile, Land cover, Land use, Landsat.

Introduction Agreeing to the forthcoming situation of aquatic deficiency,

Water is an essential component of our daily life and its
resources have always been special among other natural
resources. Water demand is continuously increasing globally
which leads to the management of water resources. A minor
portion of the water on earth is existing as freshwater. With
the increasing population global water demand is going to
rise by 2-3% annually. The development and maintenance of
water resources is one of the most critical problem on
national as well as global level. Immutable and infinite
nature of water resources have led to a misconception of
considering water resources for granted. The natural flow of
water resources is as important as artificial reservoirs are,
though it is constantly recharged (Oki and Kanae, 2006).
there is essential to do research for fresh locations for erection
of new reservoirs. Prior to identifying appropriate new sites,
it is vital to detect the quantity of water that can be stowed
inside the reservoir opposite various crest levels. This can be
estimated by investigating the reservoir location. Though,
undulating landscape topographies and extensive ground data
measurements frontier the occurrence of these investigations.
Newly, development in digital tools, use of Geographical
Information Systems (GIS) has grown crucial tools for
examining prime reservoir sites. GIS is simply processing,
analyzing, and representation of spatial data. DEMs are
extensively used for hydrological demonstrating, to govern
flow directions, slope steepness, stream orders, areas and
capacities. ArcGIS software offers correct estimations of
 159

reservoir measurements and aquatic apparent areas through

contouring and surface mapping instead of other conventional
methods.
The study site used in this analysis is span to Tarbela Dam.
Tarbela Dam is situated in the Hazara Mountains, which are
part of the mountain group recognized as the Lower
Himalayas. (Sajjad et al., 1994). Tarbela dam is a huge dam
built on Indus River near a small town called Tarbela in the
Haripur District of Pakistan and is sited 50 km NW of
Islamabad as shown in figure 1. It is the only mega storage
structure in a Pakistan and world’s largest earth and rock
filled structure. A couple of concrete supplementary dams
have two spill ways; the discharge capacity of main spillway
is 650, 000 Cusec and the capacity of assisting spillway is
850,000 Cusec, correspondingly. The geographical location
of Tarbela dam is 34º 06ʹ 51ʺ N and 72º 45ʹ 55ʺ E.
The strategic power invention of the dam was 2100 MW. By
the passage of time, this power production was studied and
improved to 3478 MW. The initial gross storage of the
dam was 11.6 MAF and live storage was 9.7 MAF. The
gross and live storage now has been reduced to 9 MAF and
6.77 MAF, respectively.
The tract is mostly rough and mountainous, varying from
low hills in the south and South-West to high mountains in
the North. Its elevation ranges from 600 m near Haripur to
more than 4000 m. Physio graphically, major part of the
area consist of series of irregularly oriented mountain ridges
interspersed with small basins or narrow valleys. The land
surface mostly have moderate to steep slope.
Tarbela dam’s main objective was to store water for
irrigation, hydropower generation, Relieving floods Rise in
foodstuff products to attain self-plenty, particularly in wheat

Figure 1
Location
map of
Study Area