Project Report TD695

On
M.Tech Project Stage 1

Watershed Balance for Agricultural Watershed

Submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of M. Tech.

in Technology & Development
by

Anish Holla
(Roll No. 153350008)

Under the guidance of

Prof. Milind A Sohoni

Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA)

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay,
Powai, Mumbai – 400076

November,2016

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 Certificate

This is to certify that the M.tech stage I report titled “Water Balance for Agricultural
Watershed” prepared by Anish Holla is approved for submission at Centre for Technology
Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay, Powai.

Signature of Guide

Prof. Milind A Sohoni

CTARA, IITB

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 Declaration

I hereby declare that the report entitled “Water Balance for Agricultural
Watershed” submitted by me, for the partial fulfilment of the degree of Master of Technology
to CTARA, IIT Bombay is a record of the work carried out by me under the supervision of Prof.
Milind A Sohoni.

I further declare that this written submission represents my ideas in my own words
and where other’s ideas or words have been included, I have adequately cited and referenced the
original sources. I affirm that I have adhered to all principles of academic honesty and integrity
and have not misrepresented or falsified any idea/data/fact/source to the best of my knowledge. I
understand that any violation of the above will cause for disciplinary action by the Institute and
can also evoke penal action from the sources which have not been cited properly.

Place: Mumbai

Date: 18-11-2016 Signature of the candidate

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 Acknowledgement

It is matter of great pleasure for me to submit this report on “Water Balance for Agricultural
Watershed” as a part curriculum of TD-695 of Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural
Areas (CTARA) with specialization in Technology & Development from IIT Bombay.

I express my sincere gratitude to my guide Prof. Milind A Sohoni for guiding me and helping
me comprehend the study in a better way. I specially thank Hemant Belsare without whom this
study would have not been possible. I also thank all my friends for their constant help.

th
Date: 18 November 2016 Ansih Holla
Roll No. – 153350008

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 Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Motivation for Study ........................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Background ...................................................................................................................... 1
1.3 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................... 2
1.4 Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 2
2 Diversion Based Irrigation System ......................................................................................... 3
2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 3
2.2 Design and Working of DBI ............................................................................................ 3
2.3 Advantages of DBI ........................................................................................................... 5
2.4 Standard Irrigation system and DBI ................................................................................. 5
2.5 DBI in Sinnar ................................................................................................................... 6
2.6 DBI structures in Sinnar ................................................................................................... 7
2.6.1 CNB structures/ Bhandhara ...................................................................................... 7
2.6.2 DBI entrance ............................................................................................................. 8
2.6.3 Escape Gates ............................................................................................................. 8
2.6.4 Main canal and Farm inlet Gates .............................................................................. 8
2.6.5 Following map gives the overview of DBI in Devnadi it shows the channel points,
escape gates, minor gates and the villages. ............................................................................. 9
2.6.6....................................................................................................................................... 10
2.6.7 Village level zoning ................................................................................................ 10
3 Village level water balance ................................................................................................... 12
3.1.1 Ground Water Recharge from Rainfall ................................................................... 13
3.1.2 Source: GEC,2009 .................................................................................................. 14
3.1.3 Soil Moisture........................................................................................................... 14
3.1.4 Return Flow from Irrigation.................................................................................... 14
3.1.5 Recharge due to Canals and Conservation structures ............................................. 15
3.1.6 Ground Water Draft ................................................................................................ 16
3.1.7 Evapotranspiration .................................................................................................. 17
3.2 Flow measurements ........................................................................................................ 19
3.2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 19
3.2.2 Area-Velocity Method ............................................................................................ 20

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 3.2.3 Flumes ..................................................................................................................... 22
4 Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 23
4.1 Datasets .......................................................................................................................... 23
4.2 Mapping ......................................................................................................................... 24
4.3 Basin Level Data ............................................................................................................ 25
4.3.1 Climatic data ........................................................................................................... 25
4.3.2 Geomorphology and Soil type ................................................................................ 26
4.3.3 Hydrogeology ......................................................................................................... 26
4.3.4 Devnadi Watershed ................................................................................................. 26
4.4 Village level Data ........................................................................................................... 27
4.4.1 Wadgaon Sinnar ...................................................................................................... 27
4.4.2 Musalgaon ............................................................................................................... 28
4.5 Discharge Readings ........................................................................................................ 31
5 Future Work .......................................................................................................................... 34
5.1 Developing water Balance Model .................................................................................. 34
5.2 Classifying Benefits/Impacts of DBI ............................................................................. 34
6 References ............................................................................................................................. 36

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List of Figures

1.1:Nashik District Map .................................................................................................................. 1

2.1: DBI system .............................................................................................................................. 3
2.2: Design of an DBI ..................................................................................................................... 4
2.3: Weir at entrance of DBI ........................................................................................................... 7
2.4: DBI entrance and Main canal .................................................................................................. 8
2.5: Escape Gates ............................................................................................................................ 8
2.6: Farm inlet gate ......................................................................................................................... 9
2.7: DBI Map Sinnar ....................................................................................................................... 9
2.8: Village zones.......................................................................................................................... 10
4.1: River and Check Dams .......................................................................................................... 25
4.2: Devnadi Watershed ................................................................................................................ 27
4.3: Streams at Devnadi (light blue marked) ................................................................................ 27
4.4: Musalgaon canal network ...................................................................................................... 30
4.5: Measuring points for table 13 ................................................................................................ 32
5.1: Water balance diagram .......................................................................................................... 34

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List of Table

Table 1: Basic information regarding Sinnar .................................................................................. 2

Table 2: Norms for specific yield ................................................................................................. 13
Table 3: Seepage and Conservation Structure Recharge .............................................................. 16
Table 4: Strange's table for Runoff-Rainfall Estimation .............................................................. 17
Table 5: DBI network rejuvenated in Devnadi ............................................................................. 24
Table 6: Sailent features of Konambe Dam .................................................................................. 25
Table 7: Watershed areas .............................................................................................................. 26
Table 8: Basic data Wadgon Sinnar .............................................................................................. 28
Table 9: Basic data of Musalgaon ................................................................................................. 28
Table 10: Cropping data in Musalgaon Kh ................................................................................... 29
Table 11: Cropping Data Musalgaon Bk ...................................................................................... 29
Table 12: Percolation table ........................................................................................................... 31
Table 13: Discharge from DBI inlet to Exit.................................................................................. 31
Table 14: Feeder-River reading .................................................................................................... 32
Table 15: Discharge into DBI per month ...................................................................................... 33

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Abstract

This report is about developing a Water balance in an agricultural watershed. It discusses upon
the water balance in Village level and Basin level for which watershed of Devnadi river in Sinnar
Taluk of Nashik district is chosen. The initial stages of developing the water balance involved
understanding the watershed and interventions present in the region. In case of Sinnar it was use
of Diversion Based Irrigation (DBI) system and its network channels which was localised
irrigation system. It also includes developing and deploying methodology to measure the flows
in canals, streams and rivers in the region. The idea is to use the data thus obtained to develop a
water balance model in village level and basin level. Principal objectives of these procedure was
to develop an water balance model which can help in understanding the possibility of expanding
the command area under DBI, getting the linkage between the cropping pattern and water
consumption and to understand the effect of ground water level in region due to presence of DBI.

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1 Introduction

1.1 Motivation for Study

Irrigation water plays a crucial role in farming sector. Especially in areas where there is irrigation
canal system in place and working. There is a lack of understanding of how the irrigation water-
rainfall-demand affects each other. Also understanding the magnitude and dynamics of different
components of the crop water balance is crucial in developing technologies options for
sustainable management of soil and water resources. With this in mind I was interested in
understanding the water balance in a village and watershed level as well as to see the effect of
the irrigation system on ground water in the region.

1.2 Background

Sufficient supply of water is an important factor governing agriculture production in Sinnar

Taluk of Nashik District. Nashik zone comes under Western Maharashtra plain zone.

1.1:Nashik District Map

Nashik is one of the agriculturally developed district in North Maharashtra. Nearly 56% of the
land use is for agriculture in the region. There are 15 tehsil in the district, Sinnar is a tehsil
located south of Nashik city. Sinnar is at a lat/long of 19.58°N and 74.0006°E with an elevation
of 2248 feet. The population of Sinnar is around 3.5 lakhs with an area of 1352.61 km2 and has
129 villages under it of which 68 villages were tanker fed. Devnadi is a river that flows through
Sinnar which later on joins Devnadi. Sinnsar is known for horticulture and major crops grown in

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this region is Bajra, vegetables and wheat. Sinnar has very high crop diversification with wide
range of crops grown. Hence these are the regions where horticulture is the main source of
income. In this context there are unique irrigation systems like Diversion Based Irrigation
System (DBI) which was built in the region during British rule. These innovative systems are
operated on basis Water user associations or community participation but for past few decades
these systems are defunct and not in operation. Yuva Mitra (YM) an NGO based in Nashik had
revived DBI system on Devnadi last year and it had been operational in 10 villages on the banks
of Devnadi in Sinnar taluk.

Table 1: Basic information regarding Sinnar

Parameter Sinnar
Population (Lakhs) 3.46
Area (km2) 1346
No. of Inhabited Villages 129
No. of household (lakhs) 0.67
Total workers (Lakhs) 1.78
Cultivators (Lakhs) .93
Agricultural Labourers (Lakhs) .38
Source- Census data

1.3 Problem Statement

Sinnar falls under elementary watershed number GV21 and GV 24 which were classified as over
exploited by GSDA. GOM had declared 63 villages in the thesil as red zone due to water
scarcity. In 2014 GSDA had identified 218 villages as drought prone. This is an contrast in
region where there is extensive cropping taking place but there is lack of drinking water. So there
is a need to understand the water situation in the region, which can help various organizations
and departments in planning interventions not only in terms of drinking water but more
importantly crop water. Also there is a need to understand how an irrigation system (in this case
DBI) affects the water budget of a village in terms of crop and drinking water. Overall aim of the
study is to come up with a water balance in village level and basin level to understand the
dynamics of water in the area.

1.4 Objectives

The objectives are

 To understand the watershed of Devnadi and to describe design and operation of the
Devnadi Based Irrigation System.
 To analyze the impact of DBI in village level.
 To build crop water balance for both village level and basin level i.e. for Devnadi
Watershed.
 To suggest alternatives to increase the command under DBI in the region.

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2 Diversion Based Irrigation System

2.1 Introduction

In olden days farmers were able to survive lack of rain as they understood the local their land and
environment and had evolved their respective irrigation system to meet these challenges. Some
of the sytems thus evolved are Jhans and Dings in Assam, Aahar Pyne in Bihar, Tankas and
Khadin in Rajasthan, Gul in Uttarakhand etc. Similarly DBI is an innovative irrigation system
found in Nashik, Bihar, Odisha etc.

A DBI is a system which diverts a portion of overflowing water from a river/stream and uses it
for the purpose of irrigation or other domestic needs. This system has been in vogue for decades
in regions that have appropriate features. There are different names for this in different part of
the country like Phad in Maharashtra, Kul in Himachal Pradesh, Zebo in Nagaland [7]. This
system doesn’t store water but uses water that is flowing. Cost of this system is much lower than
that of a conventional irrigation system. These systems run on the backbone of community
participation. In Nashik Phad system was active in early 16th century in Tapi basin on rivers
Panjhra, Mosam and Aram. A Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency has in short had explained the
DBI as specific to topological areas where river flow has steep gradient which helps in
construction of diversion weir and also there is contribution of base flow post monsoon which
will keep the DBI functional till summer months providing irrigation water. Lastly one of the
important fact is that irrigation through DBI happens only through gravity and hence designing
of it requires consideration of slopes of the region. But over the period of time due to neglect and
community participation these systems are defunct in most part of the country.

2.1: DBI system

2.2 Design and Working of DBI

A DBI gets its water from overflowing CNB’s/ which are constructed on rivers. As long as there
is water overflowing or equal to the height of CNB wall there will be water entering DBI through

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a rectangular opening as shown in the figure above. Usually a village has 1-2 DBI system in
place. Process of selecting the site is carried out taking into consideration the river base gradient
and slope of command area. Series of Bandhara/CNB’s are built across the river and typical
height of these ranges from 1-5 m. As the level of water raised because of this structure is used to
feed an off taking canal, height of diversion/DBI entrance is designed such that excess water
from river is automatically removed and enters the main canal and excess water overflows over
the CNB to downstream. The figure shows the working of a DBI system [8].

2.2: Design of an DBI

Water enters main canal and its network through the DBI entrance. Canals are built through
banking and cutting depending on topology of the region. Length of canal varies from one DBI
to other. Along the length there are sluice gate (inlet gates) provided at various location for
letting the water into the field. At the end main canal joins back to the river. In case of excess
water entering the main canal it will reach back to river. If there are situation where water should
not be let through canal then escape gates located at start of DBI is open through which all the
water is let back to river.

Water usage and maintenance of the DBI depends on community participation. It’s through
WUA that farmers come together and decide who will get water for how many days when DBI is
operational in other words water rotation is decided through annual or bi-annual meeting of
communities.

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2.3 Advantages of DBI

Main objectives of DBI were to meet the irrigation water requirement over the year. As
mentioned before these localised community systems were defunct for decades but with
increasing instances of drought there was a rising need to find an alternative. Then the focus fell
back on these local irrigation systems. In past few years many local based/indigenous irrigation
systems were revived. Some of the main advantages of these DBI systems are
 Utilizing overflowing water for irrigation.
 Irrigation water availability increases.
 Less cost of construction and operation because of gravity.
 Helps in recharge of groundwater.
 Creates livelihoods by providing water to un-irrigated lands.
 Results in building community based management structure and association
In Odisha DBI system was set up in Kalahndi district with first steps involved building of Water
management committee (WC). Through these committees community participation was
mobilised in building of the system. A total of 306 acres were bought under direct irrigation, a
user charge of Rs.50/month was charged for maintenance of system. Simultaneously workshops
on improving the agriculture practices were held along with capacity building program. With
DBI systems the tribal farmers who used to take one crop have started taking 2 crop cycles per
year [2].

DBI is also considered a viable option for hilly areas where springs are present and water from
which are diverted for irrigation and drinking purpose. This irrigation provides life saving or
protective irrigation to small tribal land owners in topology where canal irrigation is almost
impossible due to higher altitude of the land. In these regions there is use of PVC pipes to carry
diverted water through gravity flow which is a huge advantage as these areas don’t have
dependable electricity supply.

2.4 Standard Irrigation system and DBI

Usually the standard irrigation system will have mains, intake structure, pumping station (lift
irrigation), conveyance system, field application system and drainage system. Water has to be
diverted from river/dam into irrigation system then conveyance system ferries the water to the
main intake structure for pumping followed by distribution network to transport water to farms.
It is complex system with lot of factors involved and there is schedule of water rotation which
is rotation of the order of crop watering based on the timetable designed for equitable
distribution of irrigation water. Water rotation implies the order of water delivery in accordance
with the schedule where water delivery day, time, and duration are specified. There is no
participatory mode in normal irrigation system and there is apathy towards the infrastructure and
lack of maintenance of system. There is huge amount money invested in developing these kinds
of irrigation networks, developing source like dam and bad designing may lead to leakages and

5
losses. Also these irrigation systems are large scale irrigation systems covering thousands of
hectares.
On the other hand DBI is localised system suited for the topology of the region flowing only
through gravity. It has a small scale of irrigation network and it’s operated by community based
participation. As mentioned before this works from overflowing water from CNB’s, hence it’s
mostly active during monsoon and couple of post monsoon months, while standard irrigation
canal may be active throughout the year. Role of these DBI’s is more of recharging the ground
water level, thereby providing sufficient water during Rabi season for farmers through well water
extraction. Cost of constructing these is significantly low as it involves masonry work of
building number of CNB’s up to 3-4 m high and providing inlets to DBI systems. Maintenance is
done by the villagers itself who are part of WUA that meets bi-annually to discuss the water
rotation during DBI active months. In general DBI are more manageable and interesting
innovative structures built with minimum resources and community participation.

2.5 DBI in Sinnar

In Sinnar, Devnadi River which originates in Dhondbar village located 26 km from Sinnar town
in Aundhepatta hills of Sahyadri ranges had 20 check dams built by British in colonial times in
1870. System used to provide water to 19 villages for a period of 9 months (Government
Gazetteer 1923). Over the period the flow of river reduced from 10 months to 5 months in a year.
Still the irrigation system was well functional till upto 1995 and local farmers managed the water
distribution system. After that it got deteriorated as it was broken down in parts. Moreover there
was no initiative from people for its maintenance since its existence was almost washed out from
their minds. As mentioned by YM the effect of falling apart of a system resulted in groundwater
tables declined due to lack of recharging and heavy extraction through electrical pumps. River
ecology was affected due to rampant extraction of sand to meet needs of growing construction in
Sinnar area. Slowly the ecological degradation and loss of traditional water management system
in combination with uncertain rainfall and unpredictable market situation resulted in partial loss
of livelihood.

In this context YM took up the task of repairing the DBI system. It initiated the process through
carrying out a ‘Shodhyatra’ to explore Devnadi and sensitize the villagers on causes of river
pollution and its consequences. Consequence of this yatra resulted in knowing the existence of
DBI in river. The project was taken up of repairing 13 DBI along 32 km long river in 10 villages
of Sinnar taluk and organize farmers to WUA. These WUA was empowered to technical and
management know-how to undertake equitable distribution of water & its management. On
broader scope this platform was used to integrate farmers to Devnadi Valley Agricultural
Producer Company limited and Green Vision Farmers Producer Co. Ltd to create marketing
opportunities for their produce. In year 2009-2012 WUA were built to realize the need of
agricultural based livelihood and extend support for crop management. By year 2015 a total of
13 sites were repaired. The expected outcomes of these interventions were

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  Regeneration of DBI- Benefit to 2376 families through direct irrigation of 1594ha and
water recharge of 2200 wells.
 To get another 100ha of land under drip irrigation to improve irrigation water efficiency.
 Promoting the agriculture based livelihood covering 350 families.

2.6 DBI structures in Sinnar

DBI will have following structures which forms a part of working. Mainly the two main
processes of DBI are to provide protective irrigation during Kharif and recharging ground water
for use in Rabi.

2.6.1 CNB structures/ Bhandhara

As shown in figure 2.2 the first part is the Bhandara structure which obstructs the flow leading to
head creation of up to height of 2-3 m. DBI are constructed based on topology of bank and river.
These weirs will have an escape gate which acts as a spill way when there is an excess of water
flow. These weirs are constructed in topological locations where river path will steep down while
canal will flow at elevation greater than the river path.

2.3: Weir at entrance of DBI

As mentioned before there are WUA which governs the usage of water and one of the rules is
that no water can be pumped from the river or storage structures directly. Hence the pumping
present is secondary that is through wells which are recharged through DBI system.

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2.6.2 DBI entrance
Entrance structures are of rectangular shape and divert the water from weir to canal which is
main canal. There is CTF’s installed in these location to measure the flow entering the system.

2.4: DBI entrance and Main canal

Once the overflow stops through weir, the water flows in DBI system is from the water level
present in the weir structure and base flow coming to the weir structure storage.

2.6.3 Escape Gates

As there are no gates at the entrance of DBI to regulate the inflow of water escape gates (3-4) are
provided along the main canal path whose output is discharge back to river. Post monsoon when
there is no requirement of water for Kharif because of good rainfall the escape gates are opened
and water is left back to river.

2.5: Escape Gates

2.6.4 Main canal and Farm inlet Gates

Water then flows through main canal which is of width of 1m and depth of 0.25m, at locations
where inlet gates are present there are concrete structures as shown in figure. When there is the

8
requirement of water for farm the outlet of this structure is blocked and the minor/farm inlet
gates are opened.

2.6: Farm inlet gate

2.6.5 Following map gives the overview of DBI in Devnadi it shows the channel points, escape
gates, minor gates and the villages.

2.7: DBI Map Sinnar

There are 10 villages along the river which has the afore mentioned DBI system we have chosen
two villages namely Wadagon Sinnar and Musalgaon for analysis. One village is upstream of
Devnadi and other is at downstream of river. After this division the village is further divided into
zones as explained in next section.

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2.6.6 Village level zoning

Village is divided within itself into zones according to the presence of canal, river and streams
flowing through it. Zoning is done to understand the impact of flow in a zone for example the
figure below shows the village Wadgaon Sinnar is divided into three zones. First zone is R-C
zone (green area) i.e. area between river (marked in blue) and canal (Yellow dotted line), second
is C-S zone (light yellow) its area between canal and Dubere stream (green dotted lines) and
third zone (marked in red) is after the Stream. In other words the area marked in red is a non
command area i.e. its not directly benefitted by existing canal network. By discretizing the
village we calculate the water balance for each zone. This will give us an rough idea of
understanding how the effect of canal plays a role in balance. In the R-C zone there will be effect
of river as well as canal on recharge while in C-S zone the effect is limited to canal this is
because the Dubere stream will only be active during the monsoon period. Now red zone is
outside the command of river as well as canal. For the zone stream is the only source but it will
have flow post monsoon only if there is good rainfall and usually this zone direr relative to other
two zones because of lack of water (as confirmed by Pooja, Phd. Student working in this area).

2.8: Village zones

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To understand the variation of water stock i.e. ground water, wells (around 10-12/village) are
chosen across the region as shown. Then they are monitored monthly with the help of YM.
During current season of Rabi, rate of recharge of the wells in the three zones will be noted
which will feed into determining the conductivity and water level in the region. Along with this
CTF value for the region will give the amount of water through canal, cropping pattern for
Kharif and Rabi will determine the ET loads feeding into water balance equation. Command area
is assumed as area or farms next to the canal as well as minors branching from it. Our aim is to
get the understanding in difference in cropping, water consumption in these zones and thereby
able to develop a model to understand the influence of DBI. These are the steps we have adopted
to understand the effect of irrigation in command and non command areas.

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3 Village level water balance
Water balance in village level is more focussed on individual farm plots instead of lumped are
method used by HRU’s in the SWAT models. This involves basic hydrological model of rainfall
and usage as shown in the figure below. In addition to rainfall there is requirement of knowledge
of seasonal values of evaporation, crop transpiration, runoff, deep drainage and soil water
storage.

So normally the components involved in village level are precipitation which will flow overland,
infiltrate and recharge ground water and evapotranspire back to atmosphere. Other part the
human induced inflow and usage of water in the region [3]. In other words conservation
equations are used to determine the water balance for a defined control volume, in a defined time
period.
Change in storage=Amount in – Amount out [4]
Equation is basic conservation system which can further broken down to following form
∆S=P+Gin-(Q+ET+Gout)
Where ∆S is the change in all forms of storage, P is the precipitation, ET is evapotranspiration, Q
is stream out flow, Gin and Gout is ground water inflow and outflow. Units of these are in L3.
Runoff in a stream may be of three types namely surface runoff, sub-surface runoff and ground
water runoff. Input data one requires are temperature, percolation, soil data and cropping data.

At beginning of the rainfall infiltration capacity is generally superior to rainfall intensity and
hence water is infiltrated completely. It continues till the saturation point is reached after which
surface runoff starts. Sub surface flow is flow in superior column of soil by infiltrated water and
appears at the surface through drain channels. It should also be noted hydraulic later conductivity
should be greater than vertical conductivity for flow to be possible. Sub surface flows through

12
macro pores present in the soil leading the water to unsaturated areas. In case of groundwater
flow it’s dependent on geology, underground structure and water volume that comes from
rainfall. It’s also called as base flows [5]. So for a village annual inflow will be as follows

Total annual recharge= Recharge during monsoon+ Non-Monsoon rainfall recharge+ Seepage
from canal+ Return flow from irrigation+ inflow from influent rivers+
Recharge from water conservation Structures.
Total annual extraction= Extraction from the Wells+ Evapotranspiration load for Kharif and
Rabi+ Base flow to river

3.1.1 Ground Water Recharge from Rainfall

Computation of rainfall recharge can be done by two methods namely Water level fluctuation
method (WLF) and Rainfall infiltration factor (RIF) method. In RIF, recharge is given by
R=f*A*Normal monsoon rainfall
Where
f = rainfall indicator
A= Area

In case of WLF, rain fall recharge is given by

∆S=h*Sy*A
Where
∆S = Change in storage
h = Rise in water level in the monsoon season
Sy = Specified yield
A = Area of sub unit
Sy value as recommended by GEC 2009 is given in below table

Table 2: Norms for specific yield

S.No Rock Formation Recommended Minimum Maximum

1 Weathered Granite. Gneiss and Schist 3% 2% 4%
with low clay content
2 Weathered Granite. Gneiss and Schist 1.5% 1% 2%
with significant clay content
3 Weathered or Vesicular or Jointed 2% 1% 3%
Basalt
4 Laterite 2.5% 2% 3%
5 Sandstone 3% 1% 5%

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 6 Quartzite 1.5% 1% 2%
7 Limestone 2% 1% 3%
8 Karstified Limestone 8% 5% 13%
9 Phyllites & Shales 1.5% 1% 2%
10 Massive Poorly Fractured Rock 0.3% 0.2% 0.5%

3.1.2 Source: GEC,2009

3.1.3 Soil Moisture

Soil moisture is the amount of water that is retained in the soil. This plays an important role in
water balance of a region as during Kharif bulk of the water requirement is met by soil moisture
as compared to Rabi season. Soil type in the village is determined by remote sensing data
obtained by Agricultural division of Nashik. Moisture data will be used to determine the amount
of water available for crops during Kharif season. Soil moisture varies between field capacity i.e.
the maximum amount of water that can be held in the soil against gravity and wilting point
which is point after which plant cannot extract any water. Total water available for plant depends
on the rooting depth of specific vegetation [9]. Figure below shows the relation between the field
capacity and available water.

3.1: Soil moisture and available water relation

3.1.4 Return Flow from Irrigation

Whenever there is irrigation there is certain amount of water used and rest infiltrates back to the
ground or in other terms its excess of irrigation water that is not evapotranspirated or evacuated
by direct surface drainage and which returns to the aquifer. Return flow can be estimated by
doing the water balance in a field scale. Figure below gives a field level water balance and for
simplicity we can assume following equation [11]
PG+R=RF+S+ETR+D
Where
PG = Water pumped
R= Rainfall
RF= Return Flow
ETR= Evapotranspiration

14
 S and D are lateral seepage and surface drainage
If we assume seepage and surface drainage are zero then the return flow can be computed by
deducting the ETR load by the amount of water pumped all units are in mm/day.

3.2: Return flow

Other alternative is the calculating by following formula
Rg=IWA*RFF
Where
Rg= Recharge due to GW irrigation in hectare-meter (ham)
IWA= Irrigation water applied (Gross GW draft in ham)
RFF= Return flow factor as a fraction
Similarly calculating recharge due to surface water irrigation
Rs= IWA*RFF
Where
Rs= Recharge due to surface water irrigation
IWA= Irrigation water in ham I.e. IWA= AD*days (where AD is average discharge of
outlet in ham/days and days= no. of days outlet is open)
RFF= Return flow factor as a fraction

3.1.5 Recharge due to Canals and Conservation structures

Canal flow also contributes to the recharge of groundwater. Seepage from an unlined canal is
affected by soil permeability, wetted perimeter, depth of water in canal, location of GW table etc.
Seepage loss can be calculated by [12]
Qs= k*yn*Fs
Where
Qs= Seepage discharge per unit length of canal (m2/s)
K= Coefficient of permeability (m/s)
Yn=normal depth of the flow (m)
Fs= Seepage function
While the according to GEC 2009,
Rc=WA*SF*Days
Where
Rc= Recharge due to canal in ham
15
 WA=Wetted Area in Million Sq.m
SF= Seepage Factor in ham/Million Sq.m/day

For conservation structures like percolation tanks, ponds etc the recharge is estimated as
Rt= AWSA * Days * Rf
Where
RT= Recharge from tanks & Ponds
AWSA= Average Water Spread Area. Or 60% of Design Water Spread Area
Days= No. of water is actually available in the Tanks & Ponds.
Rf= A recharge Factor in mm/day

Finally recharge due to conservation structure

RWC = GS*Rf
Where
RWC = Recharge due to Water Conservation Structures
GS = Gross Storage
Rf = Recharge Factor as a Fraction
GS = Storage Capacity * No. Of Fillings

Table gives the general estimation for above discussed parameters as per GEC 2009.

Table 3: Seepage and Conservation Structure Recharge

Parameters Recharge sources Range of Parameters

Canal seepage Unlined canals 15 to 30 ham/day/million
Factor sq.m. of wetted area
Lined canals & canals in hard rock 20% of above value for
terrain unlined canals
Return flow factor Surface water Irrigation 0.10 – 0.50
Ground water Irrigation 0.05 – 0.45
Seepage from tanks 1.4 mm/day over the on average water spread area
and ponds
Water conservation 50% of the Gross Storage. Out of this, 50% is during monsoon
structures season and the remaining 50% during non-monsoon season
Source:GEC,2009

3.1.6 Ground Water Draft

Ground water draft can be calculated by two methods namely domestic draft and irrigation draft.
Former one is the common method where draft is obtained from multiplying the abstraction
structures by unit seasonal draft
types
GGWDft   No  Unit Draft
i 1

16
 GGWDft = Gross Ground Water Draft in any season
No. = Number of Abstraction Structures actually in Use.
Unit Draft = Draft For one abstraction structure during the season.
Types = No of Types of Different Structures.
Unit Draft = Draft per day * No of days the structures are in use.
Data required for this is collected with help of YM. After monsoon the farmers in the region use
wells for irrigation starting from October for Rabi crop. Hence amount of water abstracted for a
season from a well is estimated by calculating the pumping hours and pump capacity. Basically
this is done by informing few farmers to keep note of his pumping hours over the Rabi season.

3.1.7 Evapotranspiration

For village level analysis we could use Simple Bucket models where the system is considered as
a bucket filled up by rainfall and emptied by evapotranspiration. The combination of evaporation
losses of water (from soil, water bodies) and transpiration of plants results in evapotranspiration.
There are many methods to calculate ET but Penman-Montheith method is accepted by FAO and
considered authentic. But extensive data is required to calculate Potential evapotranspiration
(PET) i.e. evapotrasnpiration that would occur if sufficient amount of water is available. ET is
calculated for an standard plant i.e. grass and is denoted by ET0. While ETc is the crop
evapotrasnpiration under standard condition. So water required to compensate evapotranspiration
loss from the cropped field is defined as crop water requirement [6]. FAO using standard crop of
height .12m, a fixed surface resistance of 70sm-1 and albedo of 0.23 derived the following
equation for ET of standard crop i.e. green grass.

ET0=
In above equation where ET0 is evapotranspiration (mm/day), Rn net radiation at crop surface
(MJ/m2/day), G the soil heat flux density (MJ/m2/day), T is mean daily air temperature, U is the
wind speed, Es and Ea are the saturation and actual vapour pressure respectively. This can be
calculated by CROPWAT software developed by FAO. The inputs required for software are
humidity, wind speed, sunshine hours and temperature. But this software can also calculate the
ET by just using the temperature data. After obtaining this ET its used to calculate ET c based on
the cropping co-efficient (Kc).

Other parameters that play role on water balance in village are domestic water use, water
entering the village through the canal system, well dynamics in village. Runoff from rainfall is
calculated using Stranges’s table which classifies catchment to good, bad and average according
to slope and following table gives the percentage of runoff to rainfall.

Table 4: Strange's table for Runoff-Rainfall Estimation

17
 Total Runoff percentage
monsoon
rainfall (mm)
Good Average Bad
25.4 0.1 0.1 0.1
76.2 0.4 0.3 0.1
101.6 0.7 0.5 0.3
254.0 4.3 3.2 2.1
508 15 11.3 7.5
635 20.6 15.4 10.3
Source: Engineering Hydrology by K Subramanya

If there are any impoundments then the capacity of the same is calculated by using slopes and
breadth of the CNB or other structures to obtain the volume of it. Obtained volume can be
correlated with runoff to get stored volume of water and excess of which will flow over. In case
of domestic water consumption it is considered from NRWDP data. Base flows are calculated
using the measurement of flow in the stream. Constrains faced during the water balance are
1. Incomplete, insufficient and discontinuous data
2. Unsatisfactory data obtained by non standard method
3. Data of low scientific credibility

18
3.2 Flow measurements

3.2.1 Introduction

In crop water management it’s important to know the quantity of water entering and leaving the
defined boundary. Data thus obtained helps us in applying the continuity equation and
determining the percolation rate for the region. Hence having infrastructures or methods in place
to determine the flow is required. There are two types of flows namely open channel flow and
piped flow. In irrigation of agricultural field the former one is in practise normally and my study
area also consists of open channel flow. So we focussed on measurements of open channel flow

Currently some of the methods in use are

1. Timed Gravimetric- this is very rudimentary method where the flow is collected in an
container for a given time. By using the volume of water collected the rate of discharge is
calculated. These are more appropriate if the flow can be channelled to container.
2. Tracer-Dilution method- in this a steady feed of known amount of concentrated tracer is
added to the stream. Chemical analysis is done downstream to determine where there is
uniformly mixed concentrate. Figure below shows the lateral mixing of tracer.
By using the continuity equation X1 and X2 the flow rate is determined. One of the
advantages of this process is that it doesn’t require area of the open channel for
measurement. Some of the common tracers are salt solutions, radioactive tracer and
fluorescent dyes.
3. Manning Equation- this is an empirical method or also known as indirect method. It’s
derived by estimating average velocity of liquid flowing in an open channel.
4. Area Velocity Method- one of the simple method is determine the velocity over an
known cross sectional area which will given the discharge using the formula
Q=A*V
Where A is the area (m2) and V is the velocity (m/s)
5. Hydraulic structure- these are permanent calibrated structure built across the canal
which can measure the flow. Here the flow is restricted by calibrated insertion and flow
rate is measured by determining the liquid level near the restriction. There are two types
of structures namely weirs and flumes.

Weirs- in this the water flows over the weir through a specially shaped opening. The
opening may be in triangular (V-notch), rectangular or trapezoidal (cipolleti weir). Flow
rate is measured by measuring the liquid depth in the pool upstream from the weir.

Flumes- are a specially shaped open channel flow section providing a restriction in
channel area or slope. The flow rate is determined by measuring the liquid depth at
specific point in the flume. Some of the commonly used flumes are Parshall flume,
Palmer-Bowlus flume, cutthroat flume etc.

19
 6. Modern Measuring techniques- two principle techniques used are electro-acoustic and
electro-optics. In other words the sound and light energy are used to determine the flow
rate.
In the DBI systems there were 5 CTF’s installed at the starting of DBI systems. For measuring
the outflow for the exit and percolation we chose area-velocity method to determine the flow
rate. This was chosen as the rest of the methods were expensive or not feasible for the study area.

3.2.2 Area-Velocity Method

In this method the area of canal and the velocity was measured at various locations for
calculating the discharge.

3.2.2.1 Velocity Measurement using Current meter (Pygmy-meter)

In A-V method there is a need to measure the velocity in the canal to determine the discharge.
The instrument used to measure the velocity was current meter. It measures flow by mechanical,
tilt or acoustical means. We use the mechanical (cups-wheel type) current meters as shown in the
figure below. There are two types of current meter namely price AA current meter and pygmy
current meter. Former one is used in river for measuring high velocity up to 7.6m/s while pygmy
one is for low velocity and has a range of 0.03 to 2.5 m/s. As our application was limited to low
velocity flows in canal Pygmy current meter was chosen.

3.3: Pygmy Current meter

The components involved in a Pygmy meter are wading rod and rev-time counter. The rpm
counter is used to measure revolutions or time for a fixed time or revolutions. During the
measurement the data thus obtained is looked up in a rating table provided by the manufacturer
to determine the velocity. Procedure adopted by us in measuring is area- discretization method.
In this as shown in figure a cross section of canal is divided into sub sections called ‘segments’,
velocities are measured at mid section of each of these segments and by determining the
discharge in each subsection of the channel c/s and summing the discharge of each sub section to
total discharge is obtained.

20
 Q=∑(a*v)

Where ‘a’ is the individual sub section area and ‘v’ is the corresponding velocity of flow in the
subsection. For the depth (d) of the stream less than 45 cm point of velocity measurement is 0.6d
below the surface of the stream.

Flow measurement from pygmy meter is calibrated against CTF measured value at Sonambe
CTF and we found out that flow measured by Pygmy meter was 43lps against an CTF reading of
45lps.

3.4: Pygmy meter calibration at CTF

21
3.2.3 Flumes

Flumes are fixed structures as mentioned above for the measurement of discharge. Cut throat
flumes were used in Sinnar. CTF consists of converging and diverging sections and bottom of
the entire length of flume is flat. CTF operates according to Venturi principle i.e. flume restrict
flow area resulting rise in water level upstream of control section, accompanied by increase in
flow velocity. Calibrated scales are present at side of CTF which give the reading of flow rate in
through the flume. CTF’s in Sinnar is of capacity ranging from 15 to 25 cusecs, figure below
shows the CTF and it top view.

22
4 Methodology
To have the water balance in an agricultural watershed there were two components namely basin
level water balance and village level water balance. In basin level watershed the Devnadi Basin
is focussed and tools like SWAT are used to determine the basin level watershed. While on the
other hand for village level water balance simple equations using cropping data and water inflow
are used to determine the water balance.

4.1 Datasets

There are lot of data sets involved in water balance of watershed. The following paragraphs
describes the various data to be used in modelling a water balance

Rainfall and other Metrological - This data gives the information regarding the rainfall in the
region. These data are collected mostly through manual observation by different stations.
Frequency of data collection may be daily, weekly or monthly. In the region of Sinnar there is
metrological station in premise of Horticulture research centre which collects the daily rainfall
data and feeds it into IMD, Pune. Hence from this source we can get data regarding rainfall,
Sunshine period, temperature, relative humidity and evaporation rate.

Revenue Map- Map is obtained by Thalati and gives information regarding the land of the
farmers according to the Ghat number. It will include area of the land and name of the farmer.
This data can be geo referenced in QGIS and integrated with cropping data collected to get plot
level cropping data.

GIS Data- These are the data sets obtained by geographic information system. Some of the data
like land use/land cover, soil texture data, slope data, DEM profile etc. These data along with
other data like rainfall, discharge feed in as the primary input to different water balance models.

Census Data- This provides the basic information regarding the status of village in the
watershed basin like population, work profile, infrastructure in place etc.

Cropping Pattern- Agricultural department provides this data for the given village. In other
words the type of crop planted in the village level both in rabi and Kahrif can be obtained by
Agricultural Department. In Sinnar there are three agricultural divisions and my study area falls
in the agricultural region of Sinnar and Wavi.

Survey Data- Survey will be carried out in village level in different zones. The survey will have
questions pertaining to cropping pattern over last few years, well data, irrigation pattern, change
in water availability after DBI and so on. Data obtained from this will be used for analysing the
zones.

23
4.2 Mapping

As part of understanding the DBI network the mapping is required to get the where DBI starts,
river paths, main canal path and the location of minor canal which feeds into farm lands. Table
below gives the information of all 13 DBI’s as provided by YM. On the stretch from Konambe to
Deopur there are 53 water conservation structures built.
Table 5: DBI network rejuvenated in Devnadi

DBI network
No of
Length Canal Covered
DBI outlet No Of
No. Village Name of Dam of Dam Length Area
number to Farmer's
(m) (m) (Ha.)
farms

GaganVarleThal
1 Sonambe 74 55 1485 12 185 125.32
At Sonambe

MadhaleThal at
2 Sonambe 75 107 680 10 85 34.2
Sonambe
Khalil Thal at
3 Sonambe 76 47 1595 18 185 121.7
Sonambe
4 Harsule Harsul 78 50 2200 8 78 37.24
5 Sinnar Vajivaran 82 56 3150 30 370 280.27
KotamKholhal at
6 Sinnar 84 60 2315 25 102 97.27
Sinnar

7 Kundewadi Mapara at Sinnar 85 35 1620 10 90 52.3

Sahajia at
8 Musalgaon 86 110 4440 32 310 240.32
Musalgao
9 Musalgaon Khetria at Sinnar 87 115 3467 38 78 61.15
10 Datli Datli 89 66 3183 22 196 108.37
KhopriBudruk,
Khopadi Bu 90 90 2850 16 195 74.34
Shahapur

12 Khopadikh Khopadikhurd 91 120 2900 15 180 88.18

13 Deopur Deopur 92 365 3045 34 322 273.3

1276 32930 270 2376 1593.96
Source: Survey and YM data

24
Devnadi starts from Konambe Dam and there are two rivers namely Shivnadi and Saraswathi (a
stream) which joins the Devnadi near Sinnar. The image below represents the rivers, Dams and
check dams along the Devnadi. The work done by YM is on river between Konambe dam and
Deopur. With help of resource provided by YM every canal and its escape gates were marked in
Devnadi Basin till Deopur. Currently the DBI system works till end of January if there is no
rainfall in the region post monsoon. One of the facts is that DBI for each village starts from
previous village for example in table above DBI no.89 for Datli will start at Musalgaon village it
is done to maintain the head for the canal flow.

4.1: River and Check Dams

Konambe Dam from which the Devnadi starts has the following salient features

Table 6: Sailent features of Konambe Dam

Year of completion 1971

Submergence area 47.77 ha
Valley Godavari
Catchment area 19.45 km2
Live storage 1.33 Mcum
Dead Storge 7.50 Mcum
CCA 302 ha
Source: Irrigation Dept

4.3 Basin Level Data

4.3.1 Climatic data

The maximum temperature varies from 42.5°C in summer to minimum temperature at winter at
6°C, while the humidity ranges from 43% to 62%. Average rainfall is 600mm. Winter season is
from December to middle of February followed by summer up to May, south-west monsoon is

25
from June to September followed by post-monsoon till November. The region is relatively dry
except during monsoon [1].

4.3.2 Geomorphology and Soil type

As the region forms part of Western Ghat and Deccan Plateu, Sinnar falls in Godavari basin. The
district is monotonously covered by the basaltic lava flows, called the ‘Deccan trap’. These rocks
have been considered to be a result of fissure type of lava eruption during the cretaceous –
Eocene period. Soils of the region are weathering product of Basalt and have various shades of
Gray to black. Soils are classified into four types namely lateritic black soil, reddish brown soil,
coarse shallow reddish black soil and medium light brownish black soil.

4.3.3 Hydrogeology

The Groundwater in the area occurs in the interconnecting vesicles, joints, fractures, and other
secondary openings. The lava flow differs greatly amongst themselves in regard to their ability to
receive, recharge, store and transmit groundwater. Differences in lava flows in respect to their
productivity arise as a result of their inherent physical characteristic such as their porosity and
permeability. Local Alluvium is deposited all along the major river basin, which is shallow and
not much productive as compared to the Deccan Basalt in the district. District is divided into 80
watersheds of which 9 are over exploited watersheds.

4.3.4 Devnadi Watershed

According to GSDA Sinnar is an over-exploited watershed. Watershed numbers for these regions
are GV21 and 24. Watershed delineation was done for Devnadi and Shivnadi to determine the
catchment area of rivers. Following which discharge measurement could be done in various
locations using current meter which will be explained in further sections. Delineation was done
using open source QGIS with GRASS plugin. SRTM DEM (Digital elevation Model) has been
used for delineation and obtained from Earth Explorer maintained by USGS. All the cells were
drained by 1000 cells are delineated as stream. Obtained water shed was compared with the river
poly-line to obtain the feeders for the main river. Feeders are the streams which feed into river
over its course. These feeders play an important role in form of base flows in keeping the river
active post monsoon period.

Table 7: Watershed areas

Watershed Catchment area (ha)

Devnadi total 38500
Shivnadi 6152
Devnadi before joining Shivnadi 10289.6
Sonambe stream 953
Dubere Stream 2063
Jayaprakash Stream 1124

26
Source:GIS GRASS map

4.2: Devnadi Watershed

4.3: Streams at Devnadi (light blue marked)

4.4 Village level Data

As part of understanding water balance in village level I have chosen two villages in the Devnadi
basin namely Wadagaon-Sinnar and Musalgaon based on the following parameters
 One village i.e.Wadagaon Sinnar is upstream of Devnadi and Musalgaon is downstream
of the river after Shivnadi joins the Devnadi.
 There are CTF’s installed in DBI system of both villages hence helping in understanding
the water inflow to the villages.
Following section gives the basic information regarding the villages

4.4.1 Wadgaon Sinnar

It’s a village located near Lonarwadi village. It is 7 km from Sinnar Bus stand and has only one
habitation. The DBI for this village starts 1.3km after Sonambe DBI no.75, water available for
this DBI is only through Devnadi River hence irrigation system dries up by mid December if

27
there are no rains. Village comes under the watershed GV21 which is under overexploited
category.
Table 8: Basic data Wadgon Sinnar

Area of village (ha) 815

Population 2722
No. of Household 466
Percentage of cultivators and Agri Labourers 54% and 36.8%
Cultivable land (ha) 693
Source: Census 2011

Village comes under Sinnar Mandal of agriculture classification. Following table gives the
cropping data of year 2014-15 in the region.
Season Crop Area in ha
Horticulture Vegetable 187
Fruits 19.8
Kharif Cereals 67
Pulse 42
Bhuimug 25
Soyabean 225
Onion 25
Rabi Onion 22
Jwari 2
Wheat 100
Maka 15
Harbhara 15
Source: TAO, Sinnar

4.4.2 Musalgaon

Village is located downstream of river i.e. after Shivnadi joins the Devnadi. There are two DBI’s
present in the village and it works till the month of January as water from both the rivers feed
into this system. Hence Musalgaon is divided to Musalgaon BK and Musalgaon KH. There is
MIDC land opposite to this village and landless people work in the jobs offered by the company.
Musalgaon Kh and Bk are located at a distance of 7.5km and 6.5km respectively from the
Sinnar village. Within this village there are 14 habitations. All the habitation have piped water
supply scheme from the year 2012. It has a service level of 40lpdcd. According to the data
provided by YM and data obtained by census following table is obtained.

Table 9: Basic data of Musalgaon

Area of village (ha) 2293

Total Population 8124
Number of households 1745
Percentage of cultivators and Agri Laborers 43.38 and 11.32%

28
Cultivable land (ha) 1734
Net sown area (ha) 870
Gross cropped area (ha) 941.38
Gross irrigated area (ha) 721.32
Net irrigated area (ha) 558
Fallow and forest land (ha) 185.51
Source: YM data
Agricultural mandal under which Musalgaon falls is Sinnar. Soil type is black and regur soil,
following table gives the cropping for Musalgaon Bk and Musalgaon Kh. Village is divided
because there are 2 DBI’s in the region and cropping area under each is classified. During
summer only Groundnut is grown in 6.5 acre. Following table gives data obtained by survey
carried out by YM during DBI rejuvenation.

Table 10: Cropping data in Musalgaon Kh

Season Type Crops Irrigated (acre)* Rain fed (acre)*

Kharif Primary Bajara 43.89 31.5
Onion 4.5 0
Tomato 24 0
Coriander 5.44 0
Secondary Maize 63 5
Groundnut 1 0
Fenugreek 1 0
Rabbi Primary Wheat 61.29 3
Onion 39.5 0.5
Secondary Gram 19.9 10
Maize 0.5 0
Source:YM data, *Agricultural data is obtained by sample survey conducted by YM
Table 11: Cropping Data Musalgaon Bk

Season Type Crops Irrigated (acre)* Rain fed (acre)*

Kharif Primary Bajara 32.5 21
Onion 8.5 0
Tomato 12.5 0
Coriander 5 0
Secondary Jawar 0 3
Groundnut 0 0.5
Cabbage 2 0
Fenugreek 2.5 0.5
Rabbi Primary Wheat 62 0
Onion 29 0
Secondary Gram 13.5 5.5
Maize 1.5 0
Source: YM data, *Agricultural data is obtained by sample survey conducted by YM

29
Image below shows the village layer, river and canal network along with the irrigated area as
mentioned by YM. The following table gives the cropping pattern comparison between
Musalgaon and Wadagon Sinnar

2015-16 2016-17 (Kharif)

Season Crop Wadagaon Musalgaon (ha) Wadagaon Musalgaon
Sinnar (ha) Sinnar (ha)
(ha)
Horticulture Vegetable 187 67 156 100
Fruits 19.8 28.31 20 30
Kharif Cereals 67 120 38 605
Pulse 42 65 8 6
Bhuimug 25 25 5 60
Soyabean 225 50 210 275
Onion 25 103 7 8
Rabi Onion 22 238
Jwari 2 20
Wheat 100 550
Maka 15 15
Harbhara 15 400
Source:TAO
From the table we can understand that Musalgaon which is in downstream has more cropping
area than that of Wadgaon Sinnar which is in upstream area. Also there is two DBI’s giving
water to Musalgaon as compared to Wadgaon.

4.4: Musalgaon canal network

30
4.5 Discharge Readings

As part of understanding the water balance we took discharge measurement at various points in
the Devnadi basin. We used current meter to take the reading in canals, feeders and river. There
are 5 CTF’s installed in the DBI’s of five villages and we have the reading data of the Musalgaon
village which we have chosen. Percolation rate of water was measured using current meter. We
took a stretch of 1.5km long canal and measured the discharge at two points from initial to final
point. The following table gives the reading value at different points. Location chosen was
Sinnar Vijayvarn and it was seen that there was no other activity being carried out in the chosen
stretch like water pumping or obstruction of flow.

Table 12: Percolation table

Water discharge at inlet 126.6lps

Water discharge at outlet 102.4lps
Water discharge 24.23lps
Loss of water/km 16.13lps
Source: Measured data
From this we have concluded that we could assume a percolation of 16lps for one km of length.
The next table depicts the flow in canal from the DBI inlet till the end of the canal when farmer
had blocked the canal to divert the water to field.

Table 13: Discharge from DBI inlet to Exit

DBI inlet into canal 360lps

Escape gate 1discharge 170.5lps
Escape gate 2 discharge 62.53lps
T point junction 65.53lps
Exit of DBI 13.508lps
Difference between T point and exit 52.03lps
Percolation loss calculated @ 16.13lps/km for 12.904
0.8km
Water flow into Minor inflow 39.126lps
Source: Measured data
We took one DBI system i.e.Sinnar Vijayvaran which had water flowing through it. The map
below depicts the path of the canal network from the DBI inlet till the exit. So we started taking
reading from the inlet then there were escape gates where water was left back to the river,
discharge of both the gate were calculated. Then measuring was taken in T-point and at exit.
Next day we came to know that a farmer was diverting the canal water into minor gate. Minor
gate was closed on that day hence we found out the percolation rate loss on the same canal
between T-Junction and exit point and we calculated the percolation table 12 as mentioned
above. Using table 12 data we calculated the possible inflow into the canal that was present the
previous day.

31
 4.5: Measuring points for table 13

The diversion through inlet gates to farm land was taking 39.126lps of water. Next was we
measured the role of feeders in keeping the flow active post monsoon. We took measurement at
three feeder streams namely Sonambe stream, Halsure stream and Deubere stream. While Sonari
and Jayaprakash stream did not have any flow. We started at the Konambe Dam and proceeded.

Table 14: Feeder-River reading

Location Flow in lps

Konambe 16.9
Sonambe stream 22.75
Bibi ka Stream 19.44
Dubere stream 49.78
Shivnadi 223.5
Source: Measured data

Readings in CTF of DBI 74 was around 20lps and that of DBI no. 75 was around 58lps. Nearly
half of the flow was contributed by Sonambe stream which joined the river before the DBI no.75.
Also Shivnadi plays an important role in post monsoon as it contributes to 223.5lps to Devnadi
which kept DBI’s at Musalgon functional.

32
There are CTF’s installed at Musalgaon and the following table gives the monthly data. Data
recording started in September last year and flow was up to November while this year the flow is
still active in Musalgon due to good monsoon.

Table 15: Discharge into DBI per month

Year Month Discharge (cusecs)*

2015 September 148
October 143.5
November 47
2016 June 6
July 138
August 215
Source: Measured data, YM, *Monthly discharge is sum of daily discharge recorded by YM through CTF

33
5 Future Work
5.1 Developing water Balance Model

After collecting the required data a water balance model is developed as shown in the figure
below. It will have two components namely Kharif and Rabi and each term in the diagram like
precipitation, soil moisture, GW extraction etc will be estimated for the each zone classified
above. It will determine the effect of DBI during Kharif and Rabi which in turn will help us
understand the effect in command and non command area. In the following diagram for a
rainfall (ppt) of 775mm will have a runoff of 100 mm, soil moisture (SM) of 100mm and ground
water recharge (GWR) of 275mm. That was the total inflow while outflow i.e.
evapotranspiration (ET) of 400mm was required for kharif of which rainfall provided 300mm
and another 100mm by extraction (GWE). Similarly in Rabi only outflow 250mm (ET) of which
150mm is extraction rest is soil moisture retained from Kharif. Base flow is 25mm, hence this
shows a balanced water balance system.

In similar lines balancing will be developed for different zones and compared for understanding
DBI dynamics.

5.1: Water balance diagram

5.2 Classifying Benefits/Impacts of DBI

Based on the outputs obtained from the water balance model benefits/impacts of DBI will be
classified. This can be classification based on following parameters
 Effect of DBI on Command area and Non command area

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  Cropping pattern in Command and non command area
 Effect of DBI in upstream and downstream of Devnadi
 Ground water dynamics because of DBI
 Impact on cropping water usage because of DBI
Other important outcome will be considering the options of extending the benefits derived by
DBI in terms of increasing the command area and reviving 296 DBI’s systems present in Nashik
district.

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6 References
1. Groundwater information, Nashik District, Maharashtra, Central Ground water board.
2. Enhancing Livelihood through DBI- A case study of two villages in Odhis by AJSA trust.
3. Quantifying available water at village level: A case study of Horongo, Mali, West Africa
by Cara W. Shonsey
4. Physical Hydrology by S.L Dingman, 2008
5. (http://echo2.epfl.ch/VICAIRE/mod_1a/chapt_6/main.htm)
6. Evapotrasnpiration-FAO Irrigation and drainage paper-56.
7. (http://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/ripple-tide-film-sdtt-its-work-local-ngos-and-
communities-diversion-based-irrigation)
8. (http://adityabastola.blogspot.in/2007/06/phad-system.html)
9. Surface irrigation simulation, evaluation and design by Utah State University,2003
10. Groundwater Estimation Committee, 2009.
11. An efficient methodology in Estimating irrigation return flow coefficients of irrigated
crops at watershed and seasonal scale by B. Dewandel, J.M Gandolfi, D. de Condappa
and S.Ahmed.
12. Seepage Losses through unlined and lined canal, Ms. K.D Uchdadiya and Dr. J.N Patel.

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